Choosing to learn: Investigating the factors that drive preschoolers' exploration

儿童在生命的早期阶段表现得像直觉科学家-观察世界，形成关于世界如何运作的理论，预测他们的理论可能产生的后果，并进行干预以验证他们的预测。目前尚不清楚的是，这些“直觉科学家”如何决定何时以及在哪些探索机会中进行探索。本研究探讨了当儿童对“信息获得”的期望值较高时，“学习者期望更新其信念的程度”，并检验探索是否对影响信息获得的因素的变化敏感。确定影响幼儿期有效主动学习的因素是重要的，因为它可以导致理解更广泛的发展差异，在学习的驱动力，对非正式和正式教育实践的发展有直接影响。将这些发现扩展到代表性不足的人群可能有助于我们制定早期干预措施，改善这些人群的生活。其中一组将检查儿童是否跟踪概率信息，并能够使用预期奖励来推动决策。第二组研究调查了当孩子们认为学习一个物体会更困难（有更高的信息增益）时，他们是否有动机更长时间和更长时间地探索这个物体。剩下的实验考察了孩子们在两个不确定结果之间的选择。一组研究评估儿童在探索具有潜在信息增益的事件之前是否考虑证据的影响。第二组研究着眼于儿童信念背景下的信息增益-特别是，在信念之间过渡的儿童是否更有动力（与更自信地扎根于当前信念的儿童相比）寻求有助于他们学习的信息。

Children in the earliest stages of life behave like intuitive scientists - observing the world, forming theories about how the world works, predicting possible consequences of their theories, and intervening to test their predictions. What is not clear is how these "intuitive scientists" go about deciding when and which exploration opportunities to pursue. This research investigates whether children are motivated to explore when there is high expectation in "Information Gain" i.e., "the degree to which a learner can expect to update her beliefs" and examines whether exploration is sensitive to variation in factors that will influence information gain. Identifying the factors that influence efficient active learning in early childhood is important because it could lead to understanding broader developmental differences in drive for learning, with direct consequences for the development of informal and formal educational practices. Extending these findings to under-represented populations may help us to develop early interventions that improve the lives of these populations.Several sets of studies are planned. One set will examine whether children track probability information and are able to use expected reward to drive decisions. The second set of studies investigate whether children are motivated to explore an object longer and more variably when they believe learning about it will be more difficult (have higher information gain). The remaining experiments examine children's choices between two uncertain outcomes. One set of studies assess whether children consider the effects of evidence prior to exploring events with potential information gain. The second set of studies looks at information gain in the context of children's beliefs - specifically, whether children who are transitioning between beliefs are more motivated (as compared to children who are more confidently rooted in their current beliefs) to seek information that will help them learn.