#3518. Mind the gap: How incomplete explanations influence childrens interest and learning behaviors

October 2026publication date
Proposal available till 30-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

The title of the journal is available only for the authors who have already paid for
Journal’s subject area:
Linguistics and Language;
Developmental and Educational Psychology;
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology;
Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology;
Artificial Intelligence;
Places in the authors’ list:
place 1place 2place 3place 4
FreeFreeFreeFree
2350 $1200 $1050 $900 $
Contract №3518.1 Contract №3518.2 Contract №3518.3 Contract №3518.4
1 place - free (for sale)
2 place - free (for sale)
3 place - free (for sale)
4 place - free (for sale)

Abstract:
Children rely on others’ explanations to learn scientific concepts, yet sometimes the explanations they receive are incomplete. Children ages 7–10 viewed question-and-answer exchanges about animal behaviors that included either a complete causal explanation of the behavior or an explanation that was missing a key step. In the book choice task, children opted to learn about the topics of the incomplete explanations more frequently than the topics of the complete explanations. There was no evidence of selective learning behaviors in the card choice task and children self-reported interest in learning more about each animal behavior was not directly related to the type of explanation they had received. Implications for the information-gap theory of learning and children learning in multiple contexts are discussed.
Keywords:
Explanation evaluation; Information deprivation; Interest; Learning behaviors

Contacts :
0