{"title":"Emerging adaptivity in probability learning: How young minds and the environment interact.","authors":"Anna I Thoma, Ben R Newell, Christin Schulze","doi":"10.1037/xge0001747","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Children often have to choose between two or more probabilistically rewarded options. How early in life do they learn to choose adaptively? Connecting research on ecologically rational probability matching in adulthood with research on the benefits of cognitive immaturity in childhood, we compared children's (3-11 years; <i>N</i> = 362) and adults' (<i>N</i> = 121) repeated choice behavior in a child-friendly probability learning task. We implemented two static and one ecologically plausible statistical environment as between-subjects conditions. Behavioral and computational modeling analyses provided converging evidence for perseveration tendencies in 3- to 4-year-olds and adaptive choice diversification from age 6 years onward. On average, school-aged children showed a stronger tendency for exploration, whereas adults were better able to overcome this tendency in favor of exploitation. Our findings emphasize the importance of implementing ecologically plausible task environments in research on cognitive development and contribute a novel repeated choice perspective to the discussion on the adaptive functions of wide exploration in childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":15698,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Psychology: General","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Experimental Psychology: General","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001747","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Children often have to choose between two or more probabilistically rewarded options. How early in life do they learn to choose adaptively? Connecting research on ecologically rational probability matching in adulthood with research on the benefits of cognitive immaturity in childhood, we compared children's (3-11 years; N = 362) and adults' (N = 121) repeated choice behavior in a child-friendly probability learning task. We implemented two static and one ecologically plausible statistical environment as between-subjects conditions. Behavioral and computational modeling analyses provided converging evidence for perseveration tendencies in 3- to 4-year-olds and adaptive choice diversification from age 6 years onward. On average, school-aged children showed a stronger tendency for exploration, whereas adults were better able to overcome this tendency in favor of exploitation. Our findings emphasize the importance of implementing ecologically plausible task environments in research on cognitive development and contribute a novel repeated choice perspective to the discussion on the adaptive functions of wide exploration in childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍：
The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General publishes articles describing empirical work that bridges the traditional interests of two or more communities of psychology. The work may touch on issues dealt with in JEP: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, JEP: Human Perception and Performance, JEP: Animal Behavior Processes, or JEP: Applied, but may also concern issues in other subdisciplines of psychology, including social processes, developmental processes, psychopathology, neuroscience, or computational modeling. Articles in JEP: General may be longer than the usual journal publication if necessary, but shorter articles that bridge subdisciplines will also be considered.
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