Learning facts during aging: the benefits of curiosity

Abstract

Background/Study Context: Recent studies have shown that young adults better remember factual information they are curious about. It is not entirely clear, however, whether this effect is retained during aging. Here, we investigated curiosity-driven memory benefits in young and elderly individuals. Methods: In two experiments, young (age range 18-26) and older (age range 65-89) adults read trivia questions, and rated their curiosity to find out the answer. They also attended to task-irrelevant faces presented between the trivia question and the answer. We then administered a surprise memory test to assess recall accuracy for trivia answers, and recognition memory performance for the incidentally-learned faces.Results: In both young and elderly adults, recall performance was higher for answers to questions that elicited high levels of curiosity. In Experiment 1 we also found that faces presented in temporal proximity to curiosity-eliciting trivia questions were better recognized, indicating that the beneficial effects of curiosity extended to the encoding of task-irrelevant material. Conclusions: These findings show that elderly individuals benefit from the memory-enhancing effects of curiosity. This may lead to the implementation of learning strategies that target and stimulate curiosity in aging.

Curiosity and surprise enhance memory differently in adolescents than in children

“…In young and older adults, curiosity states also enhance memory for incidental face images that are encountered during high-compared to low-curiosity states (Galli et al, 2018;Gruber et al, 2014;Stare et al, 2018). In contrast to our prediction, we did not observe that high-curiosity states increased memory for incidental face images in children and adolescents.…”

“…To induce curiosity, we used a trivia paradigm in which participants consecutively encoded trivia questions that were associated with varying degrees of curiosity and anticipated the correct answer (see Figure 1). Studies with adults have repeatedly shown that answers to trivia questions associated with high curiosity are better remembered than answers to low-curiosity trivia questions (Fastrich et al, 2018;Galli et al, 2018;Gruber et al, 2014;Kang et al, 2009;Marvin & Shohamy, 2016;McGillivray et al, 2015;Stare, Gruber, Nadel, Ranganath, & Gómez, 2018;Wade & Kidd, 2019). The paradigm consisted of a screening phase in which we selected participant-specific trivia questions for which the answers were unknown and which varied in subjective curiosity.…”

“…In the subsequent encoding phase, a trivia question was presented and participants anticipated the correct answer over a delay of 13 seconds. During the anticipation phase, we presented an incidental image of an adult face in order to investigate potential memory enhancements for incidental information encountered during high-and low-curiosity states (as has been shown for adults: Galli et al, 2018;Gruber et al, 2014;Stare et al, 2018). After the correct answer was shown, participants rated its interestingness.…”

Curiosity-driven memory enhancement persists over time but does not benefit from post-learning sleep

“…As such, some of the first neurophysiological curiosity research in humans has approached the topic from the perspective of reward seeking and learning and examined the associated brain regions. When participants study trivia questions and make subjective ratings of their curiosity for the answers, higher curiosity ratings predict greater memory retention (Fastrich, Kerr, Castel, & Murayama, 2017;Galli et al, 2018;Gruber, Gelman, & Ranganath, 2014;Kang et al, 2009;Marvin & Shohamy, 2016;McGillivray, Murayama, & Castel, 2015).…”

The Curiosity of Education Faculty Students in Learning

“…Development of curiosity in learning can be used as a component in preparing for the 21st century's superior generation, because it is an important metacognitive skill in the context of education [1]. Individuals who have a high level of curiosity will be able to remember what has been learned longer than individuals who are less curious about the variety of information provided [2] [3]. Besides curiosity plays an important role in maintaining cognitive functions, mental health, and physical [4], and academic achievement [5], so that curiosity is increasingly felt as a virtue that needs to be developed in the learning process in education.…”