Lee Nayen, Lazaro Vanessa, Wang Jinjing Jenny, Şen Hilal H, Lucca Kelsey
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 2;13:1015649. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015649. eCollection 2022.
Infants are drawn to events that violate their expectations about the world: they look longer at physically impossible events, such as when a car passes through a wall. Here, we examined whether individual differences in infants' visual preferences for physically impossible events reflect an early form of curiosity, and asked whether caregivers' behaviors, parenting styles, and everyday routines relate to these differences. In Study 1, we presented infants ( = 47, = 16.83 months, = 10.29-24.59 months) with events that violated physical principles and closely matched possible events. We measured infants' everyday curiosity and related experiences (i.e., caregiver curiosity-promoting activities) through a newly developed curiosity scale, (EMCS). Infants' looking preferences for physically impossible events were positively associated with their score on the EMCS, but not their temperament, vocabulary, or caregiver trait curiosity. In Study 2A, we set out to better understand the relation between the EMCS and infants' looking preferences for physically impossible events by assessing the underlying structure of the EMCS with a larger sample of children ( = 211, = 47.63 months, = 10.29-78.97 months). An exploratory factor analysis revealed that children's curiosity was comprised four factors: Social Curiosity, Broad Exploration, Persistence, and Information-Seeking. Relatedly, caregiver curiosity-promoting activities were composed of five factors: Flexible Problem-Solving, Cognitive Stimulation, Diverse Daily Activities, Child-Directed Play, and Awe-Inducing Activities. In Study 2B ( = 42 infants from Study 1), we examined which aspects of infant curiosity and caregiver behavior predicted infants' looking preferences using the factor structures of the EMCS. Findings revealed that infants' looking preferences were uniquely related to infants' Broad Exploration and caregivers' Awe-Inducing Activities (e.g., nature walks with infants, museum outings). These exploratory findings indicate that infants' visual preferences for physically impossible events may reflect an early form of curiosity, which is related to the curiosity-stimulating environments provided by caregivers. Moreover, this work offers a new comprehensive tool, the that can be used to measure both curiosity and factors related to its development, starting in infancy and extending into childhood.
他们会更长时间地注视物理上不可能发生的事件，比如汽车穿过墙壁。在此，我们研究了婴儿对物理上不可能发生的事件的视觉偏好上的个体差异是否反映了一种早期形式的好奇心，并询问了照料者的行为、养育方式和日常活动是否与这些差异有关。在研究1中，我们向婴儿（n = 47，M = 16.83个月，范围 = 10.29 - 24.59个月）呈现违背物理原理且与可能发生的事件紧密匹配的事件。我们通过一个新开发的好奇心量表，即早期儿童好奇心量表（EMCS），来测量婴儿的日常好奇心及相关经历（即照料者促进好奇心的活动）。婴儿对物理上不可能发生的事件的注视偏好与他们在EMCS上的得分呈正相关，但与他们的气质、词汇量或照料者的特质好奇心无关。在研究2A中，我们通过对更大样本的儿童（n = 211，M = 47.63个月，范围 = 10.29 - 78.97个月）评估EMCS的潜在结构，来更好地理解EMCS与婴儿对物理上不可能发生的事件的注视偏好之间的关系。一项探索性因素分析表明，儿童的好奇心由四个因素组成：社会好奇心、广泛探索、坚持性和信息寻求。相关地，照料者促进好奇心的活动由五个因素组成：灵活解决问题、认知刺激、多样的日常活动、以儿童为导向的游戏和引发敬畏的活动。在研究2B中（来自研究1的42名婴儿），我们使用EMCS的因素结构来检验婴儿好奇心和照料者行为的哪些方面能够预测婴儿的注视偏好。研究结果表明，婴儿的注视偏好与婴儿的广泛探索和照料者的引发敬畏的活动（如带婴儿散步、去博物馆参观）有着独特的关联。这些探索性结果表明，婴儿对物理上不可能发生的事件的视觉偏好可能反映了一种早期形式的好奇心，这与照料者提供的激发好奇心的环境有关。此外，这项工作提供了一个新的综合工具，即早期儿童好奇心量表，它可以用来测量好奇心及其发展相关的因素，从婴儿期开始并延伸到儿童期。
