Young children would rather explore than get rewards

[sl8]

Study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.13026
Article: https://news.osu.edu/young-children-would-rather-explore-than-get-rewards/

12Aug2020

Young children would rather explore than get rewards

Study finds their exploration is not random

Jeff Grabmeier
Ohio State News

Young children will pass up rewards they know they can collect to explore other options, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that when adults and 4- to 5-year-old children played a game where certain choices earned them rewards, both adults and children quickly learned what choices would give them the biggest returns.

But while adults then used that knowledge to maximize their prizes, children continued exploring the other options, just to see if their value may have changed.

“Exploration seems to be a major driving force during early childhood – even outweighing the importance of immediate rewards,” said Vladimir Sloutsky, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

[...]

[Wicked Blue]

1. T.S. Eliot wrote:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

[Igel]

2. Sounds like the "self-discipline" versus "confidence that the rules won't change" conundrum.

Observed in older studies.

[Jim__]

3. "The children could turn their virtual candies into real stickers at the end of the experiment."

Interesting experiment. I'm not sure what it means to turn "virtual candies" into "real stickers" or what that might have meant to the children.