Ruggeri, Azzurra2025-03-252025-03-252022-120963-721410.1177/09637214221112114https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/26724Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.This article introduces ecological active learning, a developmental framework that focuses on children’s ability to adapt and tailor their active-learning strategies to the particular structure and characteristics of a learning environment. Results of seminal studies indicate that efficient, adaptive search strategies emerge around 3 years of age, much earlier than previously assumed. This work highlights the importance of developing age-appropriate paradigms that capture children’s early competence to gain a more comprehensive and fair picture of their active-learning abilities. Also, it offers a process-oriented theoretical framework that can accommodate and reconcile a sparse but growing body of work documenting children’s active and adaptive learning. Three of the most promising avenues for future research on children’s ecological active learning are discussed.enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessactive learningadaptivenesscognitive developmentecological learningexplorationinformation searchGeneral PsychologyJournal articlehttp://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140106343&partnerID=8YFLogxKRuggeri, A 2022, 'An Introduction to Ecological Active Learning', Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 471-479. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721422111211491254239