Children’s “annoying and destructive” behaviour may actually – sometimes – have benefits, a new study suggests.
A review paper published in August in Trends in Cognitive Sciences looked into the factors behind “exploratory behaviour” in children between ages three and eight, and noted an evolutionary purpose for their lack of focus.
Researchers noted that young children’s brains appear to be built for distraction. They found that their lack of focus may ensure they take in as much information as possible.
Vladimir Sloutsky, the study’s lead author and a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University, said kids can be “annoying and destructive for a reason.”
“They need to acquire a lot of knowledge in a relatively short period of time,” Sloutsky said in an Ohio State News article published Thursday. “We need to provide them with things that are OK to break, because exploring and breaking things is how they learn about the world.”
Researchers noted that “what might look and feel like pure chaos” shows how children learn through exploration.
‘Exploration-exploitation dilemma’
According to the study, people of all ages face the “exploration-exploitation dilemma” when they have to choose between trying something new (exploration), or repeating actions proven to be successful (exploitation).
Adults are usually more exploitative and may view the first option to be a waste of time, while children aren’t as choosy about where to focus their attention, so they tend to opt for exploration, according to researchers. Meanwhile, researchers said the exploitative option may hinder someone from obtaining new skills or knowledge.
“Because they don’t have a fully developed working memory system, children will explore and resample, especially in less familiar situations,” Sloutsky said. ”An adult will quickly decide that something is worthy of attention and other things are not. Children do not make those selective decisions as quickly.”
Adults have a “mature working memory,” according to researchers, which helps them to plan and deal with distractions. But children’s attention tends to be divided.
“Because children explore, they may not immediately optimize the benefit of the best option, but they also won’t lose out if something in the environment changes,” Sloutsky told Ohio State News. “That is where exploratory behaviour becomes very beneficial, guarding them against being entrapped by their own knowledge early in development.”
