There are a lot of factors that go into players doing this. Part of it is, players want to use the Skills their characters are good at. I was in a game once where our Druid had a really high bonus to her Nature skill, and was constantly asking “can I make a Nature check for that?” and “what do I find out with a Nature check of... *sound of dice rolling* 18?” Any time the DM started describing anything vaguely related to plants, you’d hear “Nature check! *sound of dice rolling* 23!” It got pretty annoying, but in all fairness, she just wanted to feel like her investment in that Skill had been worthwhile, and the DM wasn’t giving her many opportunities to utilize it. When you see this happening, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect, “am I giving this player enough opportunities to put their skills to good use?”
Another reason this happens is learned behavior from other DMs. I played in a game one with a DM who wouldn’t allow us to accomplish anything without some kind of roll, but would never call for checks himself. We’d be exploring dangerous wilderness and suddenly, out of nowhere, he’d spring a random encounter on us, and the monsters would get a surprise round. If you asked, “we didn’t hear any signs of them or anything?” he’d say “well, no one said they wanted to make a Perception check.” Or we’d be faced with a puzzle, and we’d be describing different ways we’re trying to interact with it, asking questions about what we saw, or what we could figure out. He’d completely stonewall us; “you can’t really tell,” “nothing seems to happen”, etc. After an absurdly long time on what should be a simple puzzle, he’d say “maybe you could try investigating.” I literally said “I thought that was what I was doing with all the questions, I didn’t realize the magic words were ‘I make an Investigation check.’” It honestly felt like a badly programmed text-based adventure game, where you have to guess what verb the computer is going to recognize as the appropriate command. Even worse was when the right answer would be hidden behind multiple consecutive checks, sometimes using the same skill. So, some players learn those habits from experiences like that.
Another DMing behavior that can drive players towards this habit is when the players can’t trust results that don’t come from the dice. Adversarial player/DM relationships can train players to use the dice as a shield, constantly trying to make checks because they know if they rolled well on a Perception check first, then the description will be reliable, whereas if they roll low or aren’t asked to make a check, it mean something might be hidden.
Ultimately, the solution is just to be straightforward with your players. Tell them, “You just tell me what your character is doing; if I’ll let you know if a check is necessary to determine the outcome.” If it keeps happening consistently, take them aside after the game or during a break and ask what’s going on. Maybe they just really want to use a certain skill, or maybe they feel insecure about describing actions and would rather interact through the game mechanics than the narrative. Maybe they don’t believe that you’re not hiding information if they don’t make enough checks. What ever the problem is, you'll have to talk it out with them and they’ll have to work to try and break the habit.
