The Wick in the Candle of Learning

@article{Kang2009TheWI,
  title={The Wick in the Candle of Learning},
  author={Min Jeong Kang and Ming Hsu and Ian Krajbich and George Loewenstein and Samuel M. McClure and Joseph Tao-yi Wang and Colin Camerer},
  journal={Psychological Science},
  year={2009},
  volume={20},
  pages={963 - 973}
}
Curiosity has been described as a desire for learning and knowledge, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We scanned subjects with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they read trivia questions. The level of curiosity when reading questions was correlated with activity in caudate regions previously suggested to be involved in anticipated reward. This finding led to a behavioral study, which showed that subjects spent more scarce resources (either limited tokens or… 
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457 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
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Background Citations
164
Methods Citations
14
Results Citations
28

457 Citations

Systems neuroscience of curiosity
Curiosity Killed the Cat but Not Memory: Enhanced Performance in High-Curiosity States
Curiosity benefits memory for target information and may also benefit memory for incidental information presented during curiosity states. However, it is not known whether incidental…
Curiosity-driven memory enhancement persists over time but does not benefit from post-learning sleep
TLDR
This study suggests that curiosity may be a learning factor that is not subsequently affected by sleep-dependent memory consolidation, but more work ought to examine the role of sleep on curiosity-driven memory in other contexts.
Motivation to Learn.
TLDR
Performance on a memory test 1 week later suggested that curiosity enhanced long-term retention, and that rewards did not undermine the benefit of curiosity.
Lighting the wick in the candle of learning: generating a prediction stimulates curiosity
TLDR
It is suggested that generating a prediction stimulates curiosity by increasing the relevance of the knowledge gap, and higher curiosity was associated with larger pupil dilation during anticipation of the correct answer.
Learning facts during aging: the benefits of curiosity
TLDR
Findings show that elderly individuals benefit from the memory-enhancing effects of curiosity, which may lead to the implementation of learning strategies that target and stimulate curiosity in aging.
How Curiosity Enhances Hippocampus-Dependent Memory: The Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Exploration (PACE) Framework
The neuroeconomics of epistemic curiosity
Curiosity and surprise enhance memory differently in adolescents than in children
Curiosity - broadly defined as the desire to acquire new information – enhances learning and memory in adults. Surprise about information facilitates later memory as well. To date, it is not known…
Memory's reflection of learned information value increases across development.
TLDR
Results from two experiments suggest that the use of past experience to prioritize memory for high-value information strengthens with increasing age and is supported by the developing ability to derive explicit knowledge of the structure of the environment from experience.
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References

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