Types of questions

“Computers are stupid. They can only give you answers.” - Pablo Picasso

“Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question“.- Niels Bohr

“…What is the question?” – Gertrude Stein’s last words.

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers” - Thomas Pynchon

December 3rd, 2006 (Last updated: 4-18-2007)

Summary: Each type of thinking may have several associated “types of questions”.

Questions are tools of inquiry. They have a structure, a syntax, a subject. The way we ask questions is itself part of the question structure. Anything from changing the syntax of the question or the tone of voice while asking a question may lead to different results.

I would like to propose a goal: to recognize questions for their limitations, uses, biases and other types of factors. In short, to raise our self-awareness of the inquiry methods we use.
This proposal is based in the belief that better quality questions may lead to better quality answers. This goal may require lots of practice : )

Nested question: a question based on a root question. The outer-shell of the nested question may be shaped by a contextual frame (e.g. moral, social and/or other). For example, someone asking a seemingly polite question that has an “embarrassing” question as a “root question”. (sugar-coated questions may be a sub-category of nested questions.)

Strategic question: a type of question that when answered as expected will serve as a spring-board for additional questions or for another action.

Leading questions: Leading questions are types of “Strategic Questions”. These questions are usually considered to be biased as they often contain hints pointing towards the expected answer.

Divergent question: a question with an aim to split meaning. It often helps to highlight the co-existence of many different variations in meaning usually grouped as one.

Convergent question: quoting from “the free dictionary”:

“thinking that brings together information focussed on solving a problem (especially solving problems that have a single correct solution)”

. These types of question have a risky tendency to contain and limit the emergence of sub-meanings. They are often asked in order to “contain” and “disambiguate” or attempt to control the unavoidable splits in the perception of meaning. Nevertheless, these types of questions can sometimes create the type of conceptual “boxes” that we are usually trying to avoid in our thinking.

Context defining questions: Questions that aim to identify the context of an act or concept. e.g. When? where? with whom?

Boxed question: A question asked in a way that the answer is allowed to fall into only one of the boxes described within the question. An example of this may be the questions in an exam where you’re provided with a limited number of “right answers”.

Binary Questions: Binary Questions may be a good example of a boxed question. These questions are usually structured in a way that they use either/or, binary logic. Pro-Con questions are examples of binary questions.

Declarative Questions: Some English speakers give interrogative intonation to otherwise perfectly affirmative sentences. Can we please include this aspect in the article? I’m not aware of this trait in any other language, but I’d be interested to know.
For example (not a very good one): “Yesterday? I went to the shopping centre? I coulnd’t believe it, the sales had started!” (from Wikipedia)

Dialectical questions. (Quoting from wikipedia:Dialectics)

In The Dialectical Biologist (Harvard U.P. 1985 ISBN 0-674-20281-3), Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin sketch a dialectical approach to biology. They see “dialectics” more as a set of questions to ask about biological research, a weapon against dogmatism, than as a set of pre-determined answers. They focus on the (dialectical) relationship between the “whole” (or totality) and the “parts.”

Feedback loop
Feedback loops are types of inquiries or questions if you will. Depending on the purpose or goal of the loop algorithm continues to generate questions.

Question shell: an intermediary, or bridge question. Usually housing another question shell. It may also house a root question or root question network.

Root question: A question that we want answered but for strategic and/or cultural and/or other reasons we add outer “question shells”. These types of questions often end up as “nested questions.

Question network: a number of related questions that together may lead to the entire knowledge desired by the person asking the question. In other words, one of the questions being answered will not lead to a valuable conclusion but an interconnected network of questions may lead to a valuable answer.

Theory: A theory is a type of question network. It requires answers to several questions in order to gain a “valuable” answer. In this same manner a book, a blog or any other form of “text” can take the active role of a question.

Rhetorical Question: (from Wikipedia) - “A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer.”

Philosophical questions:
Wikipedia: “List of philosophical questions”>>

Presuppositional questions: We commonly know these type of questions as “loaded questions” - they are questions that are based and contain an assumption within them (eg. such as “Have you stopped beating your wife?”)

”’There are three main types of questions in research projects:”’
Descriptive question, used primarily to describe the existence of some thing or process.
Relational question, designed to look at the relationships between two or more variables.
Causal question, designed to determine whether one or more variables causes or affects one or more outcome variables.Research Methods Knowledge Base. http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/resques.php

”’Surveys have a few types of questions:”’
Dichotomous questions, usually these questions require yes/no answers or require a person to answer by choosing an option(s) from a multiple choice of possible answers.
Nominal questions, these types of questions are designed to inquire about a level of quantitative measure. Usually these questions form correlations between a number and a concept. For example:

Occupational Class:
1= Moderate
2= Severe
3= etc. Research Methods Knowledge Base. Types of Questions. http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/questype.php

Qualifying questions (a.k.a. filter question, or contingency question. These types of questions are designed to determine if the individual answering the question needs to continue on to answer subsequential questions.

”’Bloom’s Taxonomy of Questions”’ (Categories of questions)
*Knowledge

who, what, when, where, how..? Describe…?

*Comprehension

retell…

*Application

How is…an example of…?; how is…related to…?; why is…significant?

*Analysis

What ar ethe parts or features of…? Classify…according to…;

*Synthesis

what would you infer from…? What ideas can you add to…? How would you design a new..? What would happen if you combined…? What solutions woul you suggest for…?

*Evaluation

do you agree that…? What do you think about?…What is the most important..? Place the following in order of priority…? How would you decide about…? What criteria would you use to assess…? Types of Questions Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. (Bloom, et al., 1956).

Goal-identifying questions
• Goals: e.g. What makes a good day?
• Opportunity: e.g. What activities currently waste your time?
• Priorities: e. g. What is most important to you?
• Information: e. g. what helps you make decisions?^[1]

System-oriented questions
• Function; e. g. What are the most common things you do with the product?
• Frequency: e. g. What parts of the product do you use most?
• Preference: e. g. What are your favorite aspects of the product?
• Failure: e. g. How do you work around problems?^[2]

Workflow-oriented questions
• Process: e. g. what did you do when you first came in today?
• Ocurrence and recurrence: e.g. How often do you do this?
• Exception: e. g. What constitutes a typical day? ^[3]

Attitude Oriented Questions
Aspiration: e.g. What do you see yourself doing five years from now.
Avoidance: e.g. What would you prefer not to do?
Motivation: e.g. What do you enjoy most about your job? ^[4]

(This blog post entry will be revised over time. I hope to keep on adding material as I identify or learn about more types of questions).

Soft Systems
“…the soft systems approach uses the notion of a “system” as an interrogative device that will enable debate amongst concerned parties”. (”Soft Systems” from Wikipedia).

Temp conclusion:
Some types of questions unnecessarily add to the complexity of our communication. Some questions may benefit from efforts to strip them down to their root question. Other questions gain value as they become more comprehensive and complex. In the end questions are tools for communication their performance and evaluation will be directly related to the context of use and the context of “success” criteria that we apply to evaluate.

Each type of thinking may have an associated type of question.

Questions beyond traditional text/spoken communication.
Questions may take on a form that transcends traditional spoken or written communication. This means that an object, a structure, a sculpture, a craft, a piece of clothing, a building, a process, all of these may be constructed as questions or as “inquiry activators” (something that encourages us to ask questions.) Added: 4-18-07

Notes[1-4]; Cooper, Alan. 2007. About Face 3. The Essentials of Interaction Design.

Related in This Blog:
Questions: An Essential Part of Life >

Related in Wikipedia:
Wikipedia: Rhethorical Question >>
Wikipedia: “Inquiry”>>
Wikipedia: “Questions” >> (includeds some types of questions)

Elsewhere on the web
Types of Questions Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy >> (Excellent resource)

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/questype.php

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/resques.php

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/careers/undergrad/hunting/inttestass/interview/plan/

http://www.e-articles.info/e/a/title/The-four-types-of-questions-when-dealing-with-customers/

http://www-ctd.ucsd.edu/resources/teaching_tips/sixtypes.htm

How we use questions:

https://camtools.caret.cam.ac.uk/portal/help/TOCDisplay/content.hlp?docId=argy

Just for fun: A funny page with Rhetorical questions >>