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How do uncertainty and surprise shape exploration in infants?

par Di Stasi, Romain ;Kabdebon, Claire;Delhaye, Quentin ;De Heering, Adélaïde
Référence NeuroCog 2025 (17th and 18th of November 2025: Brussel)
Publication Publié, 2025-11-18

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Résumé :

How do uncertainty and surprise shape curiosity in infants? Prior works show that 8-month-olds prefer information of intermediate uncertainty, a phenomenon known as the “Goldilocks effect”. Yet, gaps remain. First, because those studies indexed curiosity via gaze, it is unclear whether the effect generalizes to problem-solving contexts that are engaging and ecologically relevant. Second, although surprise influences curiosity, it is unknown whether moderate surprise, like moderate uncertainty, elicits the strongest curiosity. We tested 40 infants aged 18–24 months with cubes featuring five buttons that produced sounds. An experimenter pressed a cube’s top button eight times to make sounds, then handed the silenced cube to the infant. This was repeated with four cubes differing in sound occurrence probabilities (0, 1, 4, 8/8) to manipulate uncertainty. We indexed curiosity via exploratory (varied press patterns) and exploitative behaviours (repeated, identical presses). Additionally, we developed an algorithm to detect infant facial surprise (raised eyebrows, wide eyes, open mouth). We predict greater exploration, and thus curiosity, at intermediate uncertainty and moderate surprise among the most curious. Analyses are underway.