Observing the unexpected enhances infants’ learning and exploration
Open accessAbstract
Given the overwhelming quantity of information available from the environment, how do young learners know what to learn about and what to ignore? We found that 11-month-old infants (N = 110) used violations of prior expectations as special opportunities for learning. The infants were shown events that violated expectations about object behavior or events that were nearly identical but did not violate expectations. The sight of an object that violated expectations enhanced learning and promoted information-seeking behaviors; specifically, infants learned more effectively about objects that committed violations, explored those objects more, and engaged in hypothesis-testing behaviors that reflected the particular kind of violation seen. Thus, early in life, expectancy violations offer a wedge into the problem of what to learn.
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Curiosity is a crucial factor that positively modulates individuals' learning experience and outcomes.
“It is a crucial factor that modulates positively the individuals' learning experience and outcomes [55, 21].”
From GPT-3-Driven Pedagogical Agents to Train Children’s Curious Question-Asking Skills (2024) · cites this paper as [55]
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“…of age, infants tend to focus on and interact with objects that have the potential to be highly informative (e.g., objects that have previously violated their expectations) compared with other interesting, but less informative, objects (Kidd, Piantadosi, & Aslin, 2012; Stahl & Feigenson, 2015).”
How Does the Mind Render Streaming Experience as Events?
Baldwin, D. A., & Kosie, J. E. (2020) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/tops.12502 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Violations of expectation trigger infants to search for explanations
Perez, J., & Feigenson, L. (2021) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104942 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Intuitive experimentation in the physical world
Bramley, N. R., Gerstenberg, T., Tenenbaum, J. B., & Gureckis, T. M. (2018) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2018.05.001 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
“…and physical exploration can be studied in naturalistic settings (Karasik, Tamis ‐ LeMonda, & Adolph, 2011; Kretch & Adolph, 2017; Piaget, 1936; Stahl & Feigenson, 2015), it is di ffi cult to accurately measure and control all aspects of natural environments, and to measure participants ’…”
Making space for children’s agency with playful learning
Baker, S. T., Courtois, S. L., & Eberhart, J. (2021) · International Journal of Early Years Education · doi:10.1080/09669760.2021.1997726 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
“These expectations allow learners, even in the first year of life, to selectively act and to explore strategically rather than take stabs in the dark (Stahl and Feigenson 2015; Brod, Hasselhorn, and Bunge 2018).”
BackgroundFló, A., Benjamin, L., Palu, M., & Dehaene‐Lambertz, G. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-08411-w · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Visual category representations in the infant brain
Xie, S., Hoehl, S., Moeskops, M., Kayhan, E., Kliesch, C., Turtleton, B., Köster, M., & Cichy, R. M. (2022) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.11.016 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Violations of Core Knowledge Shape Early Learning
Stahl, A. E., & Feigenson, L. (2018) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/tops.12389 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
“Infants and children were no better at learning about this “innocent bystander” object when taught following a surprising violation event than following an expected event (Stahl & Feigenson, 2015; 2017).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialThe elaboration of exploratory play
Pelz, M., & Kidd, C. (2020) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0503 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“defying gravity versus passing through a solid object) in different ways [39,55].”
BackgroundGeraci, A., & Surian, L. (2022) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105574 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Visually Entrained Theta Oscillations Increase for Unexpected Events in the Infant Brain
Köster, M., Langeloh, M., & Hoehl, S. (2019) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797619876260 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
“In addition, recent evidence suggests that infants take unexpected events as an opportunity to learn (Stahl & Feigenson, 2015).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialInfants’ Physical Reasoning and the Cognitive Architecture that Supports It
Lin, Y., Stavans, M., & Renée Baillargeon, B. (2022) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108399838.012 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Hyowon Gweon, C., & Schulz, L. (2018) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.13059 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
“Children spontaneously explore the world starting in infancy (e.g., Adolph, Eppler, & Gibson, 1993; Kretch & Adolph, 2016; Needham, 2000); as early as 11 months, infants selectively explore when events violate their expectations about object properties (Stahl & Feigenson, 2015).”
BackgroundSimplicity and validity in infant research
Kominsky, J. F., Lucca, K., Thomas, A. J., Frank, M. C., & Hamlin, J. K. (2022) · Cognitive Development · doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101213 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
The Epistemic Role of Core Cognition
Jenkin, Z. (2020) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.1215/00318108-8012850 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
The Efficiency of Infants' Exploratory Play Is Related to Longer-Term Cognitive Development
Muentener, P., Herrig, E., & Schulz, L. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00635 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Expression of Curiosity in Social Robots
Ceha, J., Chhibber, N., Goh, J., McDonald, C., Oudeyer, P., Kulić, D., & Law, E. (2019) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3290605.3300636 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
“Promoting curiosity has been shown to play a role in adult [33] and infant [39] learning, and foster early academic achievement, particularly for children with low socio-economic status [35].”
BackgroundThird-Party Preferences for Imitators in Preverbal Infants
Powell, L. J., & Spelke, E. (2018) · Open Mind · doi:10.1162/opmi_a_00018 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“Then a display-blind experimenter presented the infants with physical copies of the imitator and nonimitator, testing which character infants would reach for first (see the Supplemental Materials [Powell & Spelke, 2018b] for details).”
Ruggeri, A., Swaboda, N., Sim, Z. L., & Alison Gopnik, C. (2019) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104013 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Homo Faber Juvenalis: A Multidisciplinary Survey of Children as Tool Makers/Users
Lancy, D. F. (2017) · Childhood in the Past · doi:10.1080/17585716.2017.1316010 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Fazekas, J., Jessop, A., Pine, J. M., & Rowland, C. F. (2020) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.180877 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
“Error-based theories (which can explain learning patterns outside of language as well [9,10]) suggest that children, like adults, continuously predict upcoming words in conversation, and use these predictions to build up their competence in their first language by comparing what they predicted with the actual input re…”
BackgroundThe emergence of the empirical stance: Children’s testing of counterintuitive claims.
Ronfard, S., Chen, E. E., & Harris, P. L. (2017) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0000455 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“After all, infants seek such evidence after they have just seen a counterintuitive phenomenon, such as a solid object moving through a wall (Stahl & Feigenson, 2015; see also Baldwin, Markman, & Melartin, 1993).”
BackgroundRational Higher-Order Belief Revision in Young Children
Kimura, K., & Alison Gopnik, C. (2018) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.13143 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Sheffler, P., Rodríguez, T. M., Cheung, C. S.-S., & Wu, R. (2021) · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Cognitive Science · doi:10.1002/wcs.1585 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Müller, C. A., Riemer, S., Virányi, Z., Huber, L., & Range, F. (2016) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147753 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Infants preferentially approach and explore the unexpected
Sim, Z. L., & Xu, F. (2017) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjdp.12198 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Hand interception of occluded motion in humans: a test of model-based vs. on-line control
Scaleia, B. L., Zago, M., & Lacquaniti, F. (2015) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00475.2015 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
“Thus, before 1 yr of age, infants expect that an unsupported object falls, that an object moving down an inclined plane accelerates, and that an upwardly moving object decelerates, and they are surprised to see artificial violations of these expectations (Kim and Spelke 1992; Stahl and Feigenson 2015).”
BackgroundCaregiver–child interaction influences causal learning and engagement during structured play
Medina, C., & Sobel, D. M. (2019) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104678 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Sampling to learn words: Adults and children sample words that reduce referential ambiguity
Zettersten, M., & Saffran, J. R. (2020) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/desc.13064 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
The Empirical Child? A Framework for Investigating the Development of Scientific Habits of Mind
Butler, L. P. (2020) · Child Development Perspectives · doi:10.1111/cdep.12354 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Young Children's Interactions with Objects: Play as Practice and Practice as Play
Lockman, J. J., & Tamis‐LeMonda, C. S. (2021) · Annual Review of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-devpsych-050720-102538 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Goudeau, S., & Cimpian, A. (2021) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691620953781 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“Even infants spend more time exploring objects that behave in surprising ways (e.g., floating in midair; Stahl & Feigenson, 2015), as if they were seeking explanations for these objects’ behavior (see also Baillargeon, 1994).”
BackgroundDevelopment of visual object recognition
Ayzenberg, V., & Behrmann, M. (2023) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-023-00266-w · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“These findings are consistent with a growing literature that suggests that infants ‘curate’ their own experience to support visual learning by adjusting where they fixate or how they manipulate objects 175,178,179 .”
Wang, S. (2019) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2019.05.001 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Oakes, L. M., & Rakison, D. H. (2019) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780195391893.001.0001 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Action Prediction Allows Hypothesis Testing via Internal Forward Models at 6 Months of Age
Gredebäck, G., Lindskog, M., Juvrud, J., Green, D., & Marciszko, C. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00290 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“In their recent paper, Stahl and Feigenson (2015) demonstrated that a violation of expectations generated enhanced learning and promoted information seeking behaviors in 11-month-old infants.”
BackgroundCheng, C., Káldy, Z., & Blaser, E. (2019) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100616 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Getting Comfortable with Uncertainty: The Road to Creativity in Preschool Children
Evans, N. S., Todaro, R. D., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh‐Pasek, K. (2022) · Creativity theory and action in education · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-98729-9_13 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Inferential social learning: Cognitive foundations of human social learning and teachingPreprint
Hyowon Gweon, C. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/8n34t · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“, objects [25], agents [26], number [28], and geometry [29]) that allows them to predict future events [30], explore events that violate these predictions [31], perform actions to learn from self-generated evidence [32,33], and even infer the cause of their failures when such actions fail [34].”
BackgroundInfants anticipate probabilistic but not deterministic outcomes
Téglás, E., & Bonatti, L. L. (2016) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2016.09.003 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Response latencies and eye gaze provide insight on how toddlers gather evidence under uncertainty
Leckey, S., Selmeczy, D., Kazemi, A., Johnson, E. G., Hembacher, E., & Ghetti, S. (2020) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0913-y · Cited by 36 · see citing works
- Authors
- Stahl, A. E., & Feigenson, L.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stahl, Aimee E.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2015-04-03
- Volume
- 348
- Issue
- 6230
- Pages
- 91-94
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- PMC
- PMC5861377
- OpenAlex
- W1980054804
- Cited by
- 617
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 92 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 93 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 48 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 9
- FWCI
- 93.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1232825)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Educational Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- expectancy violation, infant learning, exploration, information seeking, hypothesis testing, prior expectations, object behavior, surprise, early learning, cognitive development
- MeSH terms
- Child Development, Cognition, Exploratory Behavior, Humans, Infant, Learning, Knowledge
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