frobbingverb.
Randomly adjusting the settings of an object, such as the dials on a piece of equipment or the options in a software program, in an effort to learn how the object works.
Example Citation:
"Why is babbling so important? The infant is like a person who has been given a complicated piece of audio equipment bristling with unlabeled knobs and switches but missing the instruction manual. In such situations people resort to what hackers call frobbing—fiddling aimlessly with the controls to see what happens."
—Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct
