Intuitively, children appear to be more exploratory than adults, and this exploration seems to help children learn, but there have been few clear tests of this idea. We test whether exploration and learning change across development using a task that presents a "learning trap." In this task, exploitation-maximizing immediate reward and avoiding costs-may lead the learner to draw incorrect conclusions, while exploration may lead to better learning but be more costly. In Studies 1, 2, and 3 we find that preschoolers and school-aged children explore more than adults and learn the true structure of the environment better. Study 3 also demonstrates that children explore more than adults even though their predictions about the effects of exploration are similar to those of adults and they predict that exploration will be costly. It also shows that exploration and learning are correlated. Study 4 shows that children's and adults' learning depends on the evidence they generate during exploration: children exposed to adult-like evidence learned like adults, and adults exposed to child-like evidence learned like children.Together, these studies support the idea that children may be more exploratory than adults, and this increased exploration influences learning.
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