Should the target audience of CogSci be extended to students too?

Question

At the moment, the main problem of cogsci seems to be the lack of active users (only 48 users with 200+ reputation points). One reason for this could be the focus on researchers and practitioners, because researchers are often taught to solve their problems alone, rather than asking someone else, and practitioners sometimes lack the academic background to ask appropriate questions.

By including students into the target audience, the site can possibly attract a much larger user base, which is more likely to need (academic) advice than, for instance, researchers.

Of course this extension would come with a price: the quality requirements for questions will probably have to be lowered, because students often know a phenomenon or problem, but do not know the correct name or technical term, which effectively hinders them to do the required initial research.

On the other hand, such questions are easy to answer and students are likely to benefit from such a quick help.

Therefore,
(1) Should the target audience of CogSci extended to students too?
(2) Are there important reasons not to extend the audience?
(3) Which changes would be necessary to adopt to the new audience (welcome message, FAQ, etc.)?

Answer 1

I think students have always been welcome in theory. However, there has been a rationale that if we keep advertise the site as one for researchers and practitioners, that will set the right tone for the site.

I'd be happy for the welcome message, FAQ, and About page to include a reference to students.

As you say, at this point, we need more users and questions. On Stats.stackexchange.com there are a few homework style questions (perhaps 5%). It's not a big problem.

Also, we can edit questions to improve them. And I think we should actively do this when it comes to poorly asked or framed questions.

Answer 2

As a new user who doesn't have expertise over cognitive science, I can feel that I am not welcomed. As a matter of fact, because I am not the target audience, eventually I will leave this site. Same thing happened to me in Fitness and Nutrition after I found out that they only welcome questions about fitness.

I asked a question which was closed as expected. I was told to google it or search it in wikipedia. Okay, I can search google or wikipedia, but what is the point of this site if the people direct me other way instead of answering the question?

If we need a scientific way of asking and expecting objective question, I think this is not student level or "Anyone else" as stated in the FAQ.

Cognitive Sciences - Stack Exchange is for researchers, academics, students, and anyone else needing expert answers to advanced questions in the cognitive sciences.

Now I found the wiki page for both fear of falling and acrophobia. I think there is not enough information to distinguish the symptoms. For example, if a person was directed to a visual cliff and is having fear, there isn't enough information to distinguish the cause of the fear. The fear could come from fear of falling or acrophobia. Who knows? This is what I am trying to understand.