Infants preferentially learn from surprising teachers

Abstract

Infants have sophisticated knowledge about the physical world, and show enhanced learning about objects that violate physical principles. However, it is unknown whether infants also preferentially learn from the individual who produces an outcome that violates expectations. We investigated whether 15-month-old infants (N = 48) selectively imitate individuals who produce surprising outcomes. In Experiment 1, infants watched an experimenter hide a ball and produce an expected outcome in which the ball was revealed where it was hidden, or a surprising outcome in which the ball was revealed in a different location. The experimenter then demonstrated a novel action: using her head to activate a light while her hands were free. Infants imitated that novel action more if the experimenter had previously produced a surprising than an expected outcome. In Experiment 2, infants witnessed the experimenter produce the surprising outcome, then use her head to activate the light while her hands were occupied. Infants did not differentially imitate the head-touch action relative to either condition in Experiment 1, perhaps indicating a tension between surprise-induced learning and rational imitation. These experiments show that surprising events are pedagogical opportunities: infants selectively learn from surprising individuals, but also may account for rationality in their surprise-induced social learning.

Great expectations: The construct validity of the violation‐of‐expectation method for studying infant cognition

“…Strong evidence for the construct validity of the VOE method comes from a newly emerging line of research that examines the functional utility of infants' behaviours following violations of expectation. When infants witness unexpected events, they are more likely to engage in targeted learning and exploration (e.g., Perez & Feigenson, 2022; Sim & Xu, 2017; Stahl & Feigenson, 2015; Stahl & Woods, in press; see Stahl & Feigenson, 2019 for review). Stahl and Feigenson (2015) presented infants with VOE events involving physical violations that typically elicit longer looking (e.g., a rolling car appeared to pass through a wall in its path), and found that infants more effectively learned novel information about objects that violated their expectations than objects that accorded with their expectations.…”

Exploration in 4-year-old children is guided by learning progress and novelty

“…We know less, however, about the principles that guide how children explore. Children might explore to minimize surprising events (Ronfard et al, 2021;Stahl & Feigenson, 2017;Stahl & Woods, 2022), where surprise originates from a mismatch between their expectations (i.e., predictions) about the world and the reality of a situation. For example, infants might expect that objects fall to the ground when dropped.…”