Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 5, 2026

Problem-Solving Before Instruction PS-I: A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities
Published on: September 11, 2021
Young children consider the expected utility of others' learning to decide what to teach
Sophie Bridgers1, Julian Jara-Ettinger2, Hyowon Gweon3
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. sbridge@stanford.edu.
Abstract:
Direct instruction facilitates learning without the costs of exploration, yet teachers must be selective because not everything can nor needs to be taught. How do we decide what to teach and what to leave for learners to discover? Here we investigate the cognitive underpinnings of the human ability to prioritize what to teach. We present a computational model that decides what to teach by maximizing the learner's expected utility of learning from instruction and from exploration, and we show that children (aged 5-7 years) make decisions that are consistent with the model's predictions (that is, minimizing the learner's costs and maximizing the rewards). Children flexibly considered either the learner's utility or their own, depending on the context, and even considered costs they had not personally experienced, to decide what to teach. These results suggest that utility-based reasoning may play an important role in curating cultural knowledge by supporting selective transmission of high-utility information.
Related Concept Videos
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Cognitive Learning
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Purposive Learning
Observational Learning
Behaviorism
The core premise of behaviorism is its focus on observable behavior rather than internal thoughts or feelings. This approach argues that true scientific...
Decision Making: Traditional Method
First, a specific claim about the population parameter is decided based on the research question and is stated in a simple form. Further, an opposing statement to this claim is also stated. These statements can act as null and alternative hypotheses, out of which a null hypothesis would be a...

