How do changes in learners’ knowledge influence information seeking? We showed preschoolers (N = 100) uncertain outcomes for events and let them choose which event to resolve. We found that children whose intuitive theories were at immature stages were more likely to seek information to resolve uncertainty about an outcome in the related domains, but children with more mature knowledge were not. This result was replicated in a second experiment but with the nuance that children at intermediate stages of belief development—when the causal outcome would be most ambiguous—were the most motivated to resolve the uncertainty. This effect was not driven by general uncertainty at the framework level but, rather, by the impact that framework knowledge has in accessing uncertainty at the model level. These results are the first to show the relationship between a learning preference and the developmental stage of a child’s intuitive theory.

学习者知识的变化如何影响信息寻求？我们展示了学龄前儿童（N= 100) 事件的不确定结果，让他们选择要解决的事件。我们发现，直觉理论处于不成熟阶段的儿童更有可能寻求信息来解决相关领域结果的不确定性，但知识更成熟的儿童则不然。这一结果在第二个实验中得到了复制，但细微差别在于，处于信念发展中间阶段的儿童——当因果结果最模棱两可时——最有动力解决不确定性。这种影响不是由框架级别的一般不确定性驱动的，而是由框架知识在获取模型级别的不确定性方面的影响所驱动的。这些结果首次展示了学习偏好与儿童直觉理论的发展阶段之间的关系。