TY - JOUR
T1 - Explanation-seeking curiosity in childhood
AU - Liquin, Emily G.
AU - Lombrozo, Tania
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Corey Cusimano for helpful comments on an earlier draft. This work was supported by a grant provided by the Templeton Foundation to TL and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to EL [grant number DGE-1656466 ]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Templeton Foundation or the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Children are known for asking ‘why?’ — a query motivated by their desire for explanations. Research suggests that explanation-seeking curiosity (ESC) is triggered by first-person cues (such as novelty or surprise), third-person cues (such as a knowledgeable adults’ surprise or question), and future-oriented cues (such as expectations about information gain or future value). Once triggered, ESC is satisfied by an adequate explanation, typically obtained through causal intervention or question asking, both of which change in efficiency over development. ESC is an important driver of children's learning because it combines the power of active learning and intrinsic motivation with the value of explanatory content, which can reveal the unobservable and causal structure of the world to support generalizable knowledge.
AB - Children are known for asking ‘why?’ — a query motivated by their desire for explanations. Research suggests that explanation-seeking curiosity (ESC) is triggered by first-person cues (such as novelty or surprise), third-person cues (such as a knowledgeable adults’ surprise or question), and future-oriented cues (such as expectations about information gain or future value). Once triggered, ESC is satisfied by an adequate explanation, typically obtained through causal intervention or question asking, both of which change in efficiency over development. ESC is an important driver of children's learning because it combines the power of active learning and intrinsic motivation with the value of explanatory content, which can reveal the unobservable and causal structure of the world to support generalizable knowledge.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.05.012
DO - 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.05.012
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85087390261
SN - 2352-1546
VL - 35
SP - 14
EP - 20
JO - Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
JF - Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
ER -