Humans are driven by an intrinsic motivation to learn, but the developmental origins of curiosity‐driven exploration remain unclear. We investigated the computational principles guiding 4‐year‐old children's exploration during a touchscreen game (N = 102, F = 49, M = 53, primarily white and middle‐class, data collected in the Netherlands from 2021–2023). Children guessed the location of characters that were hiding following predictable (yet noisy) patterns. Children could freely switch characters, which allowed us to quantify when they decided to explore something different and what they chose to explore. Bayesian modeling of their responses revealed that children selected activities that were more novel and offered greater learning progress (LP). Moreover, children's interest in making LP correlated with better learning performance. These findings highlight the importance of novelty and LP in guiding children's exploration.

中文翻译：

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4 岁儿童的探索以学习进度和新奇事物为指导


人类受到内在学习动机的驱动，但好奇心驱动的探索的发展起源仍不清楚。我们研究了指导 4 岁儿童在触摸屏游戏中进行探索的计算原理（N = 102，F = 49，M = 53，主要是白人和中产阶级，数据于 2021 年至 2023 年在荷兰收集）。孩子们按照可预测的（但嘈杂的）模式猜测隐藏的角色的位置。孩子们可以自由地切换角色，这使我们能够量化他们何时决定探索不同的东西以及他们选择探索什么。对他们的反应进行的贝叶斯模型显示，孩子们选择了更新颖的活动，并提供了更好的学习进度（LP）。此外，孩子们对制作 LP 的兴趣与更好的学习成绩相关。这些发现强调了新颖性和LP在引导儿童探索方面的重要性。