The effect of self-questioning on the design quality in engineering design -: An exploratory study

The article at hand is based on Hackers (1999) work on the significance of speech during engineering design combined with the empirically well substantiated positive effect of two verbalization components - self-explanation and self-questioning - on coping with cognitive demands. The presented study investigates the influence of self-questioning on problem solving in the field of engineering design (construction in mechanical engineering). Under the condition of think aloud 17 subjects had to solve small design tasks. The process of designing was documented by video. ne statements verbalized while the concept was worked out were inspected for evidence of the use of self-questioning. As some central results, a relationship between self-questioning and solution rate became evident. Various types of questions surface, which seem to be of different importance for the design process. Relationships between quality of concept, self-questioning and prior knowledge are discussed.