Expectational question

From INF Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

An Expectational question requires a long answer. Expectational questions are formed according to the following abstract specification: "Why did some expected event not occur?". An example of Expectational question would be: "Why isn't there an interaction?" [1]

Here is an example from "Explain me like I'm five" where the explainee makes a move by putting forward an expectational question:

-Topic: The Turkish lira has been falling in value for some time now. Arguably it was overvalued before, as the country has been importing more than it exports for a couple of decades. 
-Explainer: The link between interest rates and inflation is a bit more complex than that. Higher interest rates Info request bring in foreign investment (or causes local investment to switch from foreign back to local) but if you fail to turn that new investment into additional GDP it will cause further inflation and where the Turkish economy currently is this could lead to hyperinflation - which they're not at yet. So arguably although the interest rate cut has caused significant drop in the value of the Lira it could be much better than having increased interest rates.
-Explainee:Why hasn't near 0% interest done this to the USD? ---> Expectational Question
-Explainer: As one of the other replies says, the relationship between inflation, interest rates and currency value is rather more complex than what I explained in my post. Inflation in the US has been low. Explaining that is a topic in itself, but maybe it'll suffice to say that the economies of Turkey and the US are very different. The United States' institutions, particularly the fed, are trusted to keep the dollar fairly stable in value, and they have the funds and economic strength to achieve this (barring some really big problem). The US dollar also has a special advantage known as "seigniorage" due to its central position in the world economy. I don't know enough about this to say how important it is here though. If inflation rates do rise in the US it's likely there'll be a rise in interest rates. This is occurring in the UK, which also has very low rates, at the moment.



Notes

  1. Graesser, A. C., & Person, N. K. (1994). Question asking during tutoring. American educational research journal, 31(1), 104-137.‏