ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the terms novelty seeking to describe the behavior itself and stimulation seeking to connect the behavior to the reward presumed to maintain it. It identifies that there is a progression to the way in which young humans mine the physical and social environment for rewarding stimuli. Explanations for intrinsically motivated behavior have led to theories of information seeking and salience of reward that have much to say about the maintenance of socially appropriate behaviors, hyperactivity, creativity, and attention. The chapter also utilizes more global indicators of preference in which aspects of the whole and naturalistic interplay of the child, peers, and environment were studied by A. F. Gramza. Frequently researchers, educators, and designers, in attempting to provide information to sustain play and learning ignore a major source of information and functional complexity in an environment—other people.
