From Exploration to Instruction: Children Learn From Exploration and Tailor Their Demonstrations to Observers’ Goals and Competence
Author(s)
Gweon, Hyowon; Schulz, Laura E
DownloadGweon TEACH_draft_121317_R2_clean.pdf (442.5Kb)
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study investigated whether children learn from exploration and act as effective informants by providing informative demonstrations tailored to observers’ goals and competence. Children (4.0–6.9 years, N = 98) explored a causally ambiguous toy to discover its causal structure and then demonstrated the toy to a naive observer. Children provided more costly and informative evidence when the observer wanted to learn about the toy than observe its effects (Experiment 1) and when the observer was ordinary than exceptionally intelligent (Experiment 2). Relative to the evidence they generated during exploration, children produced fewer, less costly actions when the observer wanted or needed less evidence. Children understand the difference between acting‐to‐learn and acting‐to‐inform; after learning from exploration, they consider others’ goals and competence to provide “uninstructed instruction”.
Date issued
2019-01Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive SciencesJournal
Child Development
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Gweon, Hyowon and Laura Schulz. "From Exploration to Instruction: Children Learn From Exploration and Tailor Their Demonstrations to Observers’ Goals and Competence." Child Development 90, 1 (January/February 2019): e148-e164 © 2019 Society for Research in Child Development
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0009-3920