Children are known for asking ‘why?’ — a query motivated by their desire for explanations. Research suggests that explanation-seeking curiosity (ESC) is triggered by first-person cues (such as novelty or surprise), third-person cues (such as a knowledgeable adults’ surprise or question), and future-oriented cues (such as expectations about information gain or future value). Once triggered, ESC is satisfied by an adequate explanation, typically obtained through causal intervention or question asking, both of which change in efficiency over development. ESC is an important driver of children’s learning because it combines the power of active learning and intrinsic motivation with the value of explanatory content, which can reveal the unobservable and causal structure of the world to support generalizable knowledge.

孩子们以问“为什么”而闻名。-他们出于解释的渴望而提出的查询。研究表明，寻求解释的好奇心（ESC）是由第一人称线索（例如新奇或惊奇），第三人称线索（例如知识渊博的成年人的惊奇或疑问）和面向未来的线索（例如期望）触发的。有关信息获取或未来价值的信息。一旦触发，ESC便会得到适当的解释，通常通过因果干预或提问来获得满足，这两种解释都会随着开发效率的提高而变化。ESC是儿童学习的重要驱动力，因为它将主动学习和内在动机的力量与解释性内容的价值相结合，可以揭示世界上不可观察和因果的结构，以支持通用知识。