Are two-year-olds intrinsically motivated to explore their own competence?

Children are keen explorers of the outside world: They systematically explore surprising findings and test hypotheses during play. However, less is known about whether toddlers are similarly driven to explore and learn about the self. The present work adapts classic exploratory play paradigms to ask whether toddlers are intrinsically motivated to explore their own competence. In Experiment 1, we selected Montessori practical life toys that were verified to be developmentally appropriate and equally appealing to toddlers (N = 24, ages 24-35 months). In Experiment 2, 2-year-olds (N = 49, ages 24-35 months) played with these toys along with a parent. Toys were presented in pairs. In each pair, the parent guided the toddler's hand while playing with one toy, which provided confounded evidence about the toddler's competence, and took turns playing the other toy independently, which provided unconfounded evidence. When given a chance to freely explore the toys on their own, toddlers first approached the confounded toy, which suggests that toddlers sought to resolve uncertainty about their competence. As a further test of this idea, Experiment 3 (N = 11, ongoing) asks whether toddlers' exploration is modulated by task difficulty. Preliminary results suggest that toddlers explore confounded toys more often for more challenging tasks compared to easier ones. Together, our work provides insights into children's early motivation to understand the self, and this understanding is an important first step for researchers, educators, and parents to better encourage and scaffold this motivation throughout development.