Pre-Decisional Information Search in 2- to 4-Year-Olds: Young Children Select the Relevant Cues When Looking for a Hidden Reward

This paper examines the capacity of 2- to 4-year-olds (n = 111, 56 female, age 25 to 59 months) to identify and select the most informative cue among several options when searching for a target—a task commonly used in decision-making research and one in which young children have traditionally struggled. Across two experiments—including a preregistered replication—we tested children using a simplified version of Lindow's (2021) finding-presents game. Children were presented with three cue cards (e.g., color, shape, icon) they could look up to determine which of the three boxes contained a hidden reward. Only one feature actually distinguished the target box—for example, the boxes all shared the same color, and all had a sticker on top, but differed in shape—so only one cue card offered genuinely informative guidance. In the first test phase, children were presented with the same set of boxes from the training phase. In the second test phase, children were presented with a new set of boxes and cue cards featuring a novel combination of cues. In Experiment 1, overall, children were more likely to select the relevant cue card, although 2-year-olds were successful only in the Same-set test phase. Experiment 2 focused specifically on 2-year-olds and showed that they succeeded even in a version that ruled out the use of a cue-saliency heuristic. Together, these findings reveal the early emergence of pre-decisional information search abilities in preschoolers and introduce a straightforward, effective paradigm for assessing early information-seeking skills.