Children Use Teachers' Beliefs About Their Abilities to Calibrate Explore-Exploit Decisions.

Models of the explore-exploit problem have explained how children's decision making is weighed by a bias for information (directed exploration), randomness, and generalization. These behaviors are often tested in domains where a choice to explore (or exploit) is guaranteed to reveal an outcome. An often overlooked but critical component of the assessment of explore-exploit decisions lies in the expected success of taking actions in the first place-and, crucially, how such decisions might be carried out when learning from others. Here, we examine how children consider an informal teacher's beliefs about the child's competence when deciding how difficult a task they want to pursue. We present a simple model of this problem that predicts that while learners should follow the recommendation of an accurate teacher, they should exploit easier games when a teacher overestimates their abilities, and explore harder games when she underestimates them. We tested these predictions in two experiments with adults (Experiment 1) and 6- to 8-year-old children (Experiment 2). In our task, participants' performance on a picture-matching game was either overestimated, underestimated, or accurately represented by a confederate (the "Teacher"), who then presented three new matching games of varying assessed difficulty (too easy, too hard, just right) at varying potential reward (low, medium, high). In line with our model's predictions, we found that both adults and children calibrated their choices to the teacher's representation of their competence. That is, to maximize expected reward, when she underestimated them, participants chose games the teacher evaluated as being too hard for them; when she overestimated them, they chose games she evaluated as being too easy; and when she was accurate, they chose games she assessed as being just right. This work provides insight into the early-emerging ability to calibrate explore-exploit decisions to others' knowledge when learning in informal pedagogical contexts.

The impact of household pets on children's daily lives: Differences in parent-child conversations and implications for children's emotional development.

Living with a pet is related to a host of socioemotional health benefits for children, yet few studies have examined the mechanisms that drive the relations between pet ownership and positive socioemotional outcomes. The current study examined one of the ways that pets may change the environment through which children learn and whether childhood pet ownership might promote empathy and prosocial behavior through parent-child conversations about emotions and mental states in the presence of a pet dog. Participants included 123 parent (118 mothers, four fathers) and child (65 female, 58 male, Mage = 39.50 months, 75 White, not Hispanic, nine Asian/Pacific Islander, seven Hispanic, five Black/African American, two South Asian/Indian, two American Indian/Alaska Native, two "other," 21 more than one race, 111 residing in the United States) dyads currently living with a pet dog (n = 61) or having never lived with a pet dog (n = 62). As hypothesized, we found that parents used a greater proportion of emotion and mental state language with their children when playing with their pet dog than with a lifelike toy, suggesting that the presence of a household pet may be one context used to promote conversations about emotions and mental states. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

"It bites!": The transmission of negative information about snakes and spiders through a naturalistic picture book interaction.

Snakes and spiders are two of the most commonly feared animals worldwide, yet we know very little about the mechanisms by which such fears are acquired. We explored whether negative information about snakes and spiders from parents shapes children's fear beliefs. Study 1 included 27 parents (22 mothers, five fathers) and children (12 female, 15 male, Mage = 5.33 years, 18 White, one Hispanic, eight more than one race). Most parents reported having an advanced degree (78%) and an annual household income of above $100,000 (74%). Participants read an animal picture book and then rated their fear toward each animal. Study 2 included 54 parents (44 mothers, eight fathers, two legal guardians) and children (27 female, 27 male, Mage = 5.52 years, 30 White, one Hispanic, seven Asian/Pacific Islander, four South Asian/Indian, 12 more than one race). Most parents reported holding an AA/BA degree (28%) or an advanced degree (59%) and reported an annual household income of $60,000-$100,000 (28%) or above $100,000 (59%). In Study 2, half of the parents were primed about how their conversations might shape children's fear prior to reading the book. Across both studies, we found that participants provided more negative than positive information about snakes and spiders and provided less positive (Study 1) and more negative (Study 2) information compared to other animals. Our results highlight the prominence of negative information in conversations about snakes and spiders and suggest that the way parents talk about these animals may shape the development of children's fears. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).