Sampling statistics are like story creation: A network analysis of parent-toddler exploratory play

Karmazyn-Raz, Hadar and Smith, Linda B. (2023) Sampling statistics are like story creation: A network analysis of parent-toddler exploratory play. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378 (1870). ISSN 0962-8436

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Abstract

Actions in the world elicit data for learning and do so in a stream of interconnected events. Here, we provide evidence on how toddlers with their parent sample information by acting on toys during exploratory play. We observed 10 min of free-flowing and unconstrained object exploration of by toddlers (mean age 21 months) and parents in a room with many available objects (n = 32). Borrowing concepts and measures from the study of narratives, we found that the toy selections are not a string of unrelated events but exhibit a suite of what we call coherence statistics: Zipfian distributions, burstiness and a network structure. We discuss the transient memory processes that underlie the moment-to-moment toy selections that create this coherence and the role of these statistics in the development of abstract and generalizable systems of knowledge. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data accessibility: The data and code are available on the Open Science Framework: https://doi-org.uea.idm.oclc.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/HE7TZ [75].
Uncontrolled Keywords:	exploration,memory,network analyses,parent-toddler play,zipfian distributions,general biochemistry,genetics and molecular biology,general agricultural and biological sciences ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1300/1300
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2026 15:21
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2026 15:21
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103455
DOI:	10.1098/rstb.2021.0358

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