Developmental differences in children and adults’ enforcement of explore versus exploit search strategies in the United States and Turkey

Abstract

Across development, as children acquire a deeper understanding of their environment, they explore less and take advantage, or “exploit,” what they already know. Here, we test whether children also enforce exploration-oriented search behaviors onto others. Specifically, we ask whether children are more likely to encourage a search agent to explore versus exploit their environment, and whether this pattern varies across childhood (between 3 and 6 years). We also ask whether this pattern differs between children and adults, and generalizes across two different sociocultural contexts—Turkey and the United States—that differ on dimensions that might relate to children's decisions about exploration (e.g., curiosity-focused educational practices, attitudes toward uncertainty avoidance). Participants (N = 358) watched an agent search for rewards and were asked at various points whether the agent should “stay” (exploit) in their current location, or “go” (explore) to a new location. At all points in the experiment, children enforced exploration significantly more often than adults. Early in the agent's search, children in the US enforced exploration more often than children in Turkey; later in the search, younger children (from both sociocultural contexts) were more likely to continue enforcing exploration compared to older children. These findings highlight that children are not only highly exploratory themselves, but also enforce exploration onto others—underscoring the central role that exploration plays in driving early cognitive development across diverse sociocultural contexts.

Research Highlights

• The current study examined developmental and cross-cultural differences in children and adults’ enforcement of explore-exploit search strategies.
• Children in the US and Turkey enforced exploration more than adults, who enforced exploitation more often; results were generally consistent across cultures with small differences.
• Mirroring developmental changes in children's own search behavior; the tendency to enforce exploration decreased between 3- to 6-years of age.
• Findings underscore the central role of an “exploration mindset” in children's early decision-making—even when exploration has no direct benefits to the child themselves.