Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Affective states, exploration, and learning are tightly inter-twined. For example, research has connected surprise to playand learning in early development (Stahl & Feigenson, 2015),but less is known about the potential impact of other affec-tive states and how they might influence exploration and sub-sequent discovery. Given that past research has suggested thatawe may increase feelings of uncertainty and lead to pursuitof cognitive accommodation in adults (Valdesolo & Graham,2014), we posit that awe-induced uncertainty may similarlylead children to think-outside-the-box and explore more duringplay. In Experiment 1, we modify emotion-inducing videos(Awe, Happy and Calm) and validate them on adult partic-ipants using the perceived self-size Circle Task (Bai et al.,2017). In Experiment 2, children were presented with one ofthe three videos and their exploratory play with a novel toy wasrecorded. Results revealed both a significant effect of the ma-nipulation (children associated with smaller selves in the Awecondition) and also an influence of the videos on play. Childrenin the Awe condition played more and explored more variablythan children in the control conditions. These results suggestthat awe influences motivation that increases variability anddiscovery in exploration.