ArticleNature communications2024
Toddlers strategically adapt their information search.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Navigating Knowledge: Effects of State Curiosity on Children's Word Learning and Information Seeking.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Learning for the Long Run: Children Increasingly Prioritize Generalizable Knowledge in Tool Selection.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Pre-Decisional Information Search in 2- to 4-Year-Olds: Young Children Select the Relevant Cues When Looking for a Hidden Reward.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Perceptual Novelty Drives Early Exploration in a Bottom-Up Manner.Developmental science · 2025Article
- Active control over exploration improves memory in toddlers.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Autistic traits foster effective curiosity-driven exploration.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Infants Assume Questions Serve an Information-Seeking Function, Link Them to Interrogative Sentences and Differentiate Them From Assertions.Child developmentArticle
- Article
- Children Strategically Decide What to Practice.Child developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Adaptive information seeking is essential for humans to effectively navigate complex and dynamic environments. Here, we developed a gaze-contingent eye-tracking paradigm to examine the early emergence of adaptive information-seeking. Toddlers (N = 60, 18-36 months) and adults (N = 42) either learnt that an animal was equally likely to be found in any of four available locations, or that it was most likely to be found in one particular location. Afterwards, they were given control of a torchlight, which they could move with their eyes to explore the otherwise pitch-black task environment. Eye-movement data and Markov models show that, from 24 months of age, toddlers become more exploratory than adults, and start adapting their exploratory strategies to the information structure of the task. These results show that toddlers' search strategies are more sophisticated than previously thought, and identify the unique features that distinguish their information search from adults'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.