I know of no studies, nor even of good measures of “curiosity” to show whether this is a real effect or not. It could be that the kinds of questions that kids ask are actually low-value, and they (correctly) learn this after a few years. Some decades in, I retain a fair bit of curiosity, and much more ability to seek answers without pestering those who aren’t likely to help.
Yeah, fair. Updated the title and OP to be a bit more agnostic about the phenomenon.
(I do think “asking why” isn’t necessarily the active ingredient I’m interested in. I think it’s quite plausible, as Alicorn notes elsethread, that the “why?” pattern is more like random verbal patter, or serving some other function, but that there’s still some other facet of kids having a more direct, gears-y interaction with the world that’s more curious than most adults. This is still the sort of thing I might just be wrong about, but it feels like there’s something there).
I know of no studies, nor even of good measures of “curiosity” to show whether this is a real effect or not. It could be that the kinds of questions that kids ask are actually low-value, and they (correctly) learn this after a few years. Some decades in, I retain a fair bit of curiosity, and much more ability to seek answers without pestering those who aren’t likely to help.
Yeah, fair. Updated the title and OP to be a bit more agnostic about the phenomenon.
(I do think “asking why” isn’t necessarily the active ingredient I’m interested in. I think it’s quite plausible, as Alicorn notes elsethread, that the “why?” pattern is more like random verbal patter, or serving some other function, but that there’s still some other facet of kids having a more direct, gears-y interaction with the world that’s more curious than most adults. This is still the sort of thing I might just be wrong about, but it feels like there’s something there).