Eliciting

Eliciting is the act of drawing out or obtaining information, responses, or reactions from a person or system through deliberate prompts or stimuli. In everyday usage, it refers to generating a response by asking questions, posing scenarios, or presenting stimuli designed to trigger a particular reaction.

In linguistics and language documentation, elicitation is a formal data-collection method used to obtain linguistic data from speakers. Researchers employ elicitation tasks such as picture naming, story completion, translation, sentence matching, and controlled prompts to elicit specific grammatical structures, vocabulary, or phonological contrasts. Elicitation is often contrasted with naturalistic observation, as it aims to produce targeted data under repeatable conditions.

In psychology and social science, elicitation techniques are used to gather information about attitudes, memories, or behaviors. Methods include interviews, questionnaires, probes, and scenario-based prompts. Elicitation can help study cognitive processes, emotion, memory, or decision-making, but researchers must balance standardization with ecological validity and protect participants’ well-being.

In information security and intelligence contexts, elicitation can refer to techniques intended to obtain sensitive information from individuals without disclosure of intent. This use raises ethical concerns and is generally considered inappropriate in professional settings.

Ethical and methodological considerations: Elicitation requires informed consent, transparency about purpose when possible, avoidance of deception when feasible, and attention to bias and data quality. The choice of elicitation method depends on goals, the subject population, and the desired level of control over elicited data.