Children shift their curiosity from kinds to individuals when items are special or useful

Humans prioritize learning about kinds (e.g., dogs, in general), over individuals (e.g., a specific dog), as kind-based facts provide rich information about categories that support learning. However, to build a comprehensive mental model of the world, we must also learn about individuals and their unique properties. What factors lead us to seek information about individuals over kinds? Here, we examined how social information, “special” status, and future utility shape children’s motivation to learn about individuals. Across two preregistered experiments (N = 212 5-to-9-year-olds tested in the United States and France), we found that marking an item as special (Experiment 1) or useful (Experiment 2) reliably shifted children’s baseline preference for learning about kinds to learning about that specific individual. Utility, but not specialness, significantly predicted subsequent recall, suggesting that curiosity alone does not always lead to enhanced memory. Age-related differences emerged, such that older children showed a stronger preference to learn about kinds for regular items. In Experiment 1, preference to learn about individual special items was higher with older age, while in Experiment 2, there was no evidence for age-related differences. Together, these findings demonstrate that from age 5 and across two distinct cultural contexts, children selectively prioritize what to learn: they default to kinds but shift to individual-focused learning when items are marked as special or likely to be useful. This flexible selectivity guides both what children learn and what they remember across development. How do children build comprehensive models of the world? Across two experiments with 5- to 9-year-olds in the United States and France, marking items as special or useful shifted children’s curiosity from wanting to learn about kinds to individuals, with select consequences for learning.