Young children would rather explore than get rewards

One thing neither this article nor the linked study measure is if there is a difference in this behavior between boys and girls. I looked through the actual article to see if there was a statement that said if there was a statistical difference between the two or not, but although they do specify the numbers for the genders of the participants in the study, none of the analysis does any comparison between the genders.

It would be fascinating to see if there are gender differences in this behavior in childhood and adulthood and compare childhood and adulthood.

For anyone interested in this type of stuff, I can recommend reading Drive.

Briefly, human behaviour can be motivated for extrinsic and intrinsic reasons. The rewards in this article are extrinsic motivators. Exploring is rewarding in an intrinsic way; it is a strive towards autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

In adults (and in older children) applying extrinsic motivators kills intrinsic motivation. Once the extrinsic motivators stop coming in, there is no desire left to do the task. Intrinsic motivation is practically infinite, as long as the environment is set up right to enable it.

Extrinsic motivation also tends to produce behaviour that does the bare minimum to get the reward (or avoid the negative consequences) whereas intrinsic motivation is what makes us want to excel.

Of course, I've skipped many important points and not countered any counterargument here, but I recommend reading Drive first if you think you disagree.

But the worst part of it all?

The schooling system, with its grades, signed slips, and whatnot, is set up through extrinsic motivation to teach obedience, conformity, and smothering the intrinsic drive so necessary for the creative work we will expect from the children later in life.

The "exploring" is because they're told to make a choice. Is there something similar to developing object permanence but with abstract concepts or probabilities that happens after that age?

And the abstract is here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.13026

But even then a statement, “there was no difference between genders, p=...” would have been useful

Then again, if one is more interested in practically applicable tips, the book How To Talk So Kids Will Listen... And Listen So Kids Will Talk is great too -- for all kinds of interpersonal relationships.

It covers empathy (actually listening and confirming feelings) but is largely about how to enable extrinsic motivation, through encouraging autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

One rather concrete example is that the authors argue it is no good to say, e.g. "if you take a bath you'll get this nice gift" or "if you don't take a bath I will remove your video gaming time for the day."

More effective, according to the authors, are to give a choice, even if it is somewhat of a forced one: "I want you to take a bath. Do you want to bathe with your boat or your duck?"

This, then, would speak to the same desire to explore as the hidden option in the article. (Or, the way I view it having read Drive: this gives the child a hint of autonomy.)