Abstract
Curiosity - broadly defined as the desire to acquire new information - enhances learning and memory in adults. In addition, interest in the information (i.e., when the information is processed) can also facilitate later memory. To date, it is not known how states of pre-information curiosity and post-information interest enhance memory in childhood and adolescence. We used a trivia paradigm in which children and adolescents (N=60, 10-14years) encoded trivia questions and answers associated with high or low curiosity. States of high pre-answer curiosity enhanced later memory for trivia answers in both children and adolescents. However, higher positive post-answer interest enhanced memory for trivia answers beyond the effects of curiosity more strongly in adolescents than in children. These results suggest that curiosity and interest have positive effects on learning and memory in childhood and adolescence, but might need to be harnessed in differential ways across child development to optimize learning.
Highlights
A fledgling research field on curiosity has suggested that intrinsic states of curiosity – the desire to acquire new information – enhance learning and memory
The present study investigated how states of curiosity and postanswer interest affect memory for answers to trivia questions in children and adolescents
Our results revealed that (a) both children and adolescents showed better memory for answers to questions associated with high curiosity. (b) Adolescents compared to children showed a greater memory enhancement when they found the answer more interesting
Summary
A fledgling research field on curiosity has suggested that intrinsic states of curiosity – the desire to acquire new information – enhance learning and memory (for reviews, see Gruber & Ranganath, 2019; Gruber, Valji, & Ranganath, 2019) In line with these findings, neuroimaging studies in adults have demonstrated that ‘pre-information’ curiosity states elicit increased neural activity in memory- and reward-related brain regions, including the hippocampus and the striatum, respectively (Charpentier, Bromberg-Martin, & Sharot, 2018; Gruber, Gelman, & Ranganath, 2014; Jepma, Verdonschot, van Steenbergen, Rombouts, & Nieuwenhuis, 2012; Kang et al, 2009; Lau, Ozono, Kuratomi, Komiya, & Murayama, 2020; Ligneul, Mermillod, & Morisseau, 2018; Oosterwijk, Snoek, Tekoppele, Engelbert, & Steven Scholte, 2019).
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