The Development of Curiosity: How Children Approach Information and ask Questions to Gain Knowledge

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Classic and contemporary developmental theories emphasize that children are active participants in their cognitive development--acquiring and revising knowledge through exploration, question-asking, and conceptual construction (e.g., Carey, 2009; Gopnik & Wellman, 2012; Piaget, 1970). In common parlance and in research on adult cognition (Lowenstein, 1994), the notion of "curiosity" encapsulates a drive to learn and understand. This symposium includes three studies designed to characterize children's curiosity, chart its development, and identify its consequences. The first talk presents longitudinal data on preschoolers' 'causal stance'--their interest in discovering the causal structure of the world. The study identifies substantial age-related increases, between 3- and 5-years, in children's preference for learning causal (vs. non-causal) information about novel objects, and in their questions about objects' causal properties. The second talk presents data on 3- to 8-year-olds' preference for engaging with intuitive vs. counterintuitive information about the biological world. Children were invited to choose whether researchers would read them books containing either novel intuitive or novel counterintuitive content about animals. The youngest children demonstrated no preference for either content. However, there was a marked age-related increase in children's preference for books containing counterintuitive content. The final study presents data from a large, longitudinal project on preschoolers' curiosity (operationalized as joy derived from learning in school) and the development of their general knowledge. Early curiosity predicted later knowledge gains, but the reverse was not true. A prominent developmental psychologist will discuss how these results inform our understanding of the role that curiosity plays in cognitive development.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Jonathan D. Lane, Vanderbilt University

Discussant

• Paul Harris, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• Exploring Developmental Change in Preschoolers' Causal Stance - Presenting Author: Margaret Shavlik, Vanderbilt University; Non-Presenting Author: Amy E Booth, Vanderbilt University

• Children's Curiosity about the Biological World - Presenting Author: Jonathan D. Lane, Vanderbilt University; Non-Presenting Author: Samuel Ronfard, University of Toronto

• School Enjoyment and its Relation to the Development of General Knowledge - Presenting Author: Jamie J Jirout, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Erik Ruzek, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica E Whittaker, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Robert C Pianta, University of Virginia - Charlottesville