title: Children adapt their questions to achieve efficient search.
abstract: One way to learn about the world is by asking questions. We investigate how younger children (7- to 8-year-olds), older children (9- to 11-year-olds), and young adults (17- to 18-year-olds) ask questions to identify the cause of an event. We find a developmental shift in children's reliance on hypothesis-scanning questions (which test hypotheses directly) versus constraint-seeking questions (which reduce the space of hypotheses), but also that all age groups ask more constraint-seeking questions when hypothesis-scanning questions are least likely to pay off: When the solution is one among equally likely alternatives (Study 1) or when the problem is difficult (Studies 1 and 2). These findings are the first to demonstrate that even young children dynamically adapt their strategies for inquiry to increase the efficiency of information search.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, United States. Electronic address: ruggeri@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Azzurra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, United States.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lombrozo
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Causal inference; Hypothesis generation; Hypothesis testing; Information search