Categories simplify the vast number of entities we encounter into equivalence classes, serving as a fundamental block of our cognition. This simplification of information supports our ability to reason about and interact with members of each category. In adulthood, selective attention helps us form categories efficiently by focusing on relevant attributes while filtering out irrelevant information. However, young children tend to encode more attributes than necessary, and this developmental difference is partly due to a prolonged development of selective attention. In the current study, we proposed another important contributor to the development. As shown in three experiments, children prefer information gathering to efficiency, regardless of its value. Experiment 1 revealed that children sample more information than adults even when filtering demands are low. Experiment 2 further supports children's preference for information. And Experiment 3 eliminates alternative explanations, demonstrating that children enjoy gathering information rather than motor actions associated with it.

Driven by Information: Children's Exploration Shapes Their Distributed Attention in Category Learning

Categorization is a critically important aspect of cognition that undergoes development. Previous studies found that children of age four acquired categories through multiple features, forming a similarity-based representation, whereas adults relied on a single feature, forming a rule-based representation. One possible interpretation is that children cannot inhibit the distraction of multiple features. We designed a categorization task with all features covered in the present study. Children were asked to uncover one feature at a time until they could categorize the items. As a result, we minimized distraction and encouraged rule-based learning. Nonetheless, even when given incentives to uncover fewer features, children learned the categories with significantly higher entropy, as calculated by the number of features they uncovered, than adults did. Such a result suggests that inhibition failures cannot fully explain categorization in children. Instead, children’s tendency to over-explore (and thus over-sample features) may also contribute to early category learning.


The role of exploration in the development of category learning

Previous studies investigating the influence of a working memory load on category learning gained mixed findings. The current study investigated the role of increased working memory load in the processes of encoding two artificial categories with a rule-plus-similarity structure. During category learning, adults were trained with a dual-task that integrated the category learning task with a secondary working memory task. Participants were instructed to retain verbal (auditorily delivered) information while learning the categories in each trial. The learning phase was followed by recognition and categorization tasks evaluating their learning of the categories and memory for exemplar features. The results indicated that verbal working memory load affected category learning and representation as compared to the control condition where participants learned the categories without interference. The dual-task paradigm disrupted attention optimization and the formation of a rule-based category representation while increasing the probability of similarity-based encoding.

Verbal working memory capacity modulates category representation.

T.02: Exploration and Information-Seeking 1

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Driven by Information: Children's Exploration Shapes Their Distributed Attention in Category Learning

The role of exploration in the development of category learning

Verbal working memory capacity modulates category representation.

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