Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Cognition. 2011 Sep;120(3):341-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.03.003. Epub 2011 May 10.
Probabilistic models of expected information gain require integrating prior knowledge about causal hypotheses with knowledge about possible actions that might generate data relevant to those hypotheses. Here we looked at whether preschoolers (mean: 54 months) recognize "action possibilities" (affordances) in the environment that allow them to isolate variables when there is information to be gained. By manipulating the physical properties of the stimuli, we were able to affect the degree to which candidate variables could be isolated; by manipulating the base rate of candidate causes, we were able to affect the potential for information gain. Children's exploratory play was sensitive to both manipulations: given unambiguous evidence children played indiscriminately and rarely tried to isolate candidate causes; given ambiguous evidence, children both selected (Experiment 1) and designed (Experiment 2) informative interventions.
预期信息增益的概率模型需要将关于因果假设的先验知识与可能产生与这些假设相关数据的可能行动的知识相结合。在这里，我们研究了学龄前儿童（平均 54 个月）是否能够识别环境中的“行动可能性”（可及性），以便在有信息可获得时隔离变量。通过操纵刺激的物理特性，我们能够影响候选变量可以被隔离的程度；通过操纵候选原因的基础率，我们能够影响信息增益的潜力。儿童的探索性游戏对这两种操作都很敏感：在提供明确证据的情况下，儿童随意玩耍，很少试图隔离候选原因；在提供模棱两可的证据的情况下，儿童会选择（实验 1）和设计（实验 2）有信息的干预措施。
