Young children use mental simulation to reason about their performance

Abstract

Young children can use observed performance outcomes (e.g., successes and failures) to decide when to persist and which tasks to pursue. However, learners often face situations where outcomes either cannot be observed or are uninformative. Using a simple tablet game, we asked whether preschool-aged children can use mentally simulated outcomes to guide their decisions. In Experiment 1, the game froze mid-trial so the final outcome was unavailable. Children preferred to repeat the same game when their attempt would have resulted in success (versus failure). In Experiment 2, an on-screen agent intervened mid-trial, rendering the outcome uninformative about the child’s performance. Children preferred to play the game without (versus with) the agent when their attempts would have been successful without the agent’s intervention. These findings suggest that children can simulate alternative outcomes of their actions and use them to guide how they pursue future tasks.