The double-edged sword of pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery

Abstract

Motivated by computational analyses, we look at how teaching affects exploration and discovery. In Experiment 1, we investigated children’s exploratory play after an adult pedagogically demonstrated a function of a toy, after an interrupted pedagogical demonstration, after a naïve adult demonstrated the function, and at baseline. Preschoolers in the pedagogical condition focused almost exclusively on the target function; by contrast, children in the other conditions explored broadly. In Experiment 2, we show that children restrict their exploration both after direct instruction to themselves and after overhearing direct instruction given to another child; they do not show this constraint after observing direct instruction given to an adult or after observing a non-pedagogical intentional action. We discuss these findings as the result of rational inductive biases. In pedagogical contexts, a teacher’s failure to provide evidence for additional functions provides evidence for their absence; such contexts generalize from child to child (because children are likely to have comparable states of knowledge) but not from adult to child. Thus, pedagogy promotes efficient learning but at a cost: children are less likely to perform potentially irrelevant actions but also less likely to discover novel information.

Individual differences and age-related changes in divergent thinking in toddlers and preschoolers.

“…It thus provides the earliest window to date to examine how DT emerges. This study converges with evidence that young children are good explorers in general (Bonawitz et al, 2011;van Schijndel, Franse, & Raijmakers, 2010;van Schijndel, Singer, van der Maas, & Raijmakers, 2010). Additionally, by demonstrating that DT is measurable early on, this opens up the possibility to determine the initial factors which affect DT at its onset.…”

“…In particular, 2-year-olds who watch an experimenter model a high level of DT produce higher levels of DT themselves, compared to children who watch no demonstration (Hoicka, Perry, Knight, & Norwood, 2015). In contrast, when an experimenter models only one action per object, and hence, as a bi-product, models a low level of DT, 1-year-olds produce lower levels of DT, compared to children who watch no demonstration (Bonawitz et al, 2011). Toddlers create their own novel jokes of a similar type after copying an experimenter's jokes (Hoicka & Akhtar, 2011), and both extend and create new pretend actions after watching an experimenter pretend (Nielsen & Christie, 2008;Rakoczy, Tomasello, & Striano, 2004).…”

“…Specifically, toddlers improve their DT if they first watch someone else showing high DT (Hoicka et al, 2015), but reduce their DT if shown low DT behaviors (Bonawitz et al, 2011). Toddlers also innovate jokes and pretending after watching multiple exemplars from an experimenter (Hoicka & Akhtar, 2011;Nielsen & Christie, 2008).…”

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

“…Alternatively, other members of the population may not encounter the new tool or see it being made or used, and must therefore invent the tool anew for themselves. While social information can make learning how to make tools more efficient, it can potentially retard individual learning by limiting spontaneous exploration [37]. In addition, if individuals imitate a demonstrator's causally irrelevant actions (the so-called 'overimitation' [38,39]), social information can result in the individual performing less efficient actions than they might through individual learning alone.…”

“…The opportunity to explore the materials in the delay also ensured that children had manipulated the materials and were familiar with their properties: something they may not have taken sufficient time to do in previous experiments. While the warm-up activities in our previous experiments [23,55] gave them experience of manipulating materials, there is evidence that children learn more about materials when they explore them for themselves rather than being shown them in a pedagogical context [37].…”