2-105 - The Child as an Active Learner: Influences of Social-models, Curiosity, Strategy, and Executive Function

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children are curious, engaged learners. They look at and explore things that interest them. They ask questions of people in their environment. Understanding children’s active learning is an influential area of research in cognitive and educational sciences. Yet the developmental, social, and cognitive processes underlying how children direct their own learning remain poorly understood.

This symposium examines factors influencing children’s active learning. The first paper explores how children decide from whom to learn. Across two experiments, older children (5- to 7-year-olds) but not younger children (3- to 4-year-olds) preferred help from an active learner who solved a problem herself over someone who was taught, but only when the new task was similar to the task the active learner previously solved. The second paper examines the role of curiosity on declarative memory. Children (7- to 8-year-olds) demonstrated better recall for trivia questions about which they were more curious, suggesting curiosity enhances long-term memory of interesting information. The third paper investigates developmental differences in active learning strategies with adults and 7- to 11-year-olds. Results show age-related improvements in performance on a card game with an underlying linear point structure, but no difference if the game was played actively (cards chosen by learners) vs. passively (cards chosen for them). Paper four found that individual differences in preschoolers’ executive function predicted performance on an active category learning task. These papers shed light on factors that enhance children’s learning and the development of active learning in early childhood, with implications for theory and educational initiatives.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Kat Adams, New York University

Individual Presentations

• The Process by Which Others Learn Informs Young Children’s Decisions About Whom to ask for Help - Presenting Author: Sophie Bridgers, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Hyowon Gweon, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Maria Bretzke, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Non-Presenting Author: Costanza de Simone, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Non-Presenting Author: Azzurra Ruggeri, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development Berlin; Technical University Munich (School of Education)

• Curiosity Leads to Better Memory After a Delay - Non-Presenting Author: Ella G. Simmons, University of California, Berkeley; Presenting Author: Shaun O’Grady, University of California, Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Fei Xu, University of California-Berkeley

• Development of Active Function Learning - Presenting Author: Angela Jones, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Non-Presenting Author: Eric Schulz, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Björn Meder, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development Berlin; Non-Presenting Author: Azzurra Ruggeri, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development Berlin; Technical University Munich (School of Education)

• Examining Individual Differences in Preschoolers’ Active Learning - Presenting Author: Kat Adams, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: George Kachergis, Radboud University; Non-Presenting Author: Todd Gureckis, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Cybele Raver, New York University