Children as young as 3 adapt their exploratory actions to the statistical structure of a search task¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2027: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In a nonverbal box-search task, children in the uniform condition were more likely to shake a large box first than children in the skewed condition, showing adaptive exploration by age 3. → Azzurra Ruggeri 2022

Evidence¶

Azzurra Ruggeri 2022¶

Azzurra Ruggeri. (2022). An Introduction to Ecological Active Learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221112114

q2 · i? · causal · r?

Study by Ruggeri, Swaboda, et al. (2019): 3- and 4-year-olds searched for an egg-shaped shaker hidden in one of four small boxes within two large boxes, having learned either a uniform or skewed hiding distribution. Shaking let children 'hear which large box contained the small box with the egg without risking opening the wrong large box.' No effect size printed.

"Compared with children in the skewed condition, who had a strong intuition as to where the egg would be hidden, children in the uniform condition were more likely to shake a large box first."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Children aged 7 to 10 adapt their question-asking strategy to the likelihood distribution of hypotheses as promptly as adults — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Five-year-olds select the more informative question under both uniform and skewed hypothesis distributions despite weak question generation — related
• Children structure their play to reduce uncertainty and deconfound causal variables — related