Do children try to answer nonsensical questions?

Previous researchers found that young children will try to answer nonsensic al questions. In Expt 1, 5- to 8-year-olds were asked sensible and nonsensi cal questions. Half of each type were 'closed' questions (which required a yes/no response), and half were 'open' questions (which could be answered i n several ways). Three weeks later the same children were asked to judge if the questions were sensible or silly. Children answered all the sensible q uestions appropriately, and only attempted to answer a small proportion of the nonsensical open questions. However, they did try to answer three-quart ers of the nonsensical closed questions. Nonetheless, children were nearly always correct in judging which questions were sensible and which were nons ensical. In Expt 1 all the closed nonsensical questions were also ones that required a comparison between two items. In Expt 2 we compared children's responses to nonsensical open and closed questions when half of each type w ere comparative and half were non-comparative. Children attempted to answer nonsensical closed questions irrespective of whether or not they included a comparison. However, few children attempted to answer nonsensical open qu estions. We discuss the implications of these results for questioning child ren and in the context of children's eyewitness testimony.