Quitting rules in hybrid foraging search: From early childhood to early adulthood

In hybrid foraging, observers search for multiple instances of target types. Children regularly perform such tasks (e.g., collecting LEGO pieces or looking different teammates within a game). Quitting rules (When do you leave the search?) are important in foraging I found enough LEGOs teammates). However, development quitting behavior has not yet been experimentally studied, and it could give us significant information about executive function development. We tested 279 (4–25 years old) using classic feature conjunction foraging. The results show that while children’s performance improved with age, all groups made similar "quitting" decisions roughly following optimal choices as defined by Charnov’s Marginal Value Theorem (MVT), youngest 4–5 old children slightly earlier. It seems mature operate relatively early development, suggesting those quite basic aspects human cognition. • studied under Charnov's MVT. obtained feature/conjunction real-world stimuli young 4 years-old behavior. Results MVT-consistent seem to Other replicate previous works on visual