Drivers of Exploration Early in Development: Perceptual Novelty Rather than A Quest for Information
Abstract
Early development is characterized by elevated exploration – children prefer novel options over known, rewarding ones. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain this tendency: one posits that children are intrinsically motivated to seek information and use novelty as a proxy for information gain, while the other suggests that perceptual novelty alone, independent of information, drives exploration. To examine the two hypotheses, we designed a four-armed bandit task with four choice options, one of which was more informative than the rest. Participants were 60 4-year-olds (29 girls, 31 boys), 68 5- to 6-year-olds (33 girls, 35 boys), and 73 adults (52 females, 20 males, and 1 reported “neither”). The results showed that across all age groups, the most informative option was rarely chosen. Adults clearly favored the most rewarding option, while 4-year-olds’ decisions were influenced by both reward and perceptual novelty, with 5- to 6-year-olds falling in between (i.e., chose the most rewarding option more, and the novel option less than 4-year-olds, but chose the most rewarding option less, and the novel option more than adults). The findings provide strong evidence that young children’s exploration is driven by perceptual novelty rather than a quest for information.