Preschool Children Choose To Learn About Topics Where There Are Gaps In Their Knowledge They Want To Fill

By Emily Reynolds The world is full of fascinating opportunities to learn. But with so many different topics for children to explore, why do they pick certain paths? In a new paper in Psychological Science, a team from Rutgers University looks closely at what drives children’s curiosity. They find that children are motivated to learn more about a topic when there is a gap in their knowledge that they want to fill. The results suggest that for young children there is a sweet spot for learning, when they already know enough to find a topic interesting, but not so much that it becomes boring. In the first study, fifty children aged around five years old were assessed on their existing knowledge in three areas: biological transmission of illness, psychosomatic events, and theory of mind (understanding other people’s mental states). In the biological transmission domain, for example, children heard stories about a character who sneezed, and were asked whether a friend would also catch the illness, while in the psychosomatic domain they were asked if somebody’s cheeks could redden from embarrassment. Next, participants were presented with choose your own adventure stories, where a character experienced a similar event to the one given in the knowledge assessment task and one that was irrelevant and unrelated. Participants then selected which event they wanted to hear the end of. In the biological transmission scenario, for example, participants read that a chara...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Educational Source Type: blogs