The Paradox of Help Seeking in the Entropy Mastermind Game
Name
feduc-05-533998.pdf
Size
1.86 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
7daa06595d83c5270421785fbba90287
Author(s)
Merelo, Juan
Brase, Gary
Nelson, Jonathan
Taylor, Nichola
Hofer, Matthias
Date Issued
September 23, 2020
Journal
Frontiers in Education
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Citation
Taylor N, Hofer M and Nelson JD (2020) The Paradox of Help Seeking in the Entropy Mastermind Game. Front. Educ. 5:533998.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Research on Bayesian reasoning suggests that humans make good use of available information. Similarly, research on human information acquisition suggests that Optimal Experimental Design models predict human queries well. This perspective contrasts starkly with educational research on help seeking, which suggests that many students wait excessively long to ask for help, or even decline help when it is offered. We bring these lines of work together, exploring when people seek help as a function of problem state in the Entropy Mastermind code breaking game. The Entropy Mastermind game is a probabilistic version of the classic code breaking game, involving inductive, deductive and scientific reasoning. Whether help in the form of a hint was available was manipulated within subjects. Results showed that participants tended to ask for help late in the game play, often when they already had all the necessary information needed to crack the code. These results pose a challenge for some versions of Bayesian and Optimal Experimental Design frameworks. Possible theoretical frameworks to understand the results, including from computer science approaches to the Mastermind game, are considered.
Subjects
help-seeking
Bayesian reasoning
mathematical games
Optimal Experimental Design theory
information-seeking behavior
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.533998
