The Wick in the Candle of Learning

Choosing to view morbid information involves reward circuitry

People often seek out stories, videos or images that detail death, violence or harm. Considering the ubiquity of this behavior, it is surprising that we know very little about the neural circuits involved in choosing negative information. Using fMRI, the present study shows that choosing intensely negative stimuli engages similar brain regions as those that support extrinsic incentives and “regular” curiosity. Participants made choices to view negative and positive images, based on negative (e.g., a soldier kicks a civilian against his head) and positive (e.g., children throw flower petals at a wedding) verbal cues. We hypothesized that the conflicting, but relatively informative act of choosing to view a negative image, resulted in stronger activation of reward circuitry as opposed to the relatively uncomplicated act of choosing to view a positive stimulus. Indeed, as preregistered, we found that choosing negative cues was associated with activation of the striatum, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex, both when contrasting against a passive viewing condition, and when contrasting against positive cues. These findings nuance models of decision-making, valuation and curiosity, and are an important starting point when considering the value of seeking out negative content.

State and Trait Rumination Effects on Overt Attention to Reminders of Errors in a Challenging General Knowledge Retrieval Task

Rumination is a recurrent and repetitive manner of thinking that can be triggered by blockage of personally relevant goals, creating a temporary state of abstract and evaluative self-focus. Particularly when focused on passive “brooding” over one’s problems and feelings, however, rumination can increase negative affect, interfere with problem-solving, and, through a negative feedback cycle, become a chronic trait-like style of responding to personal challenges, particularly in women. Given the pervasiveness of rumination and its potential impact on cognitive processes and emotional states, the present study asks how it impacts attention to feedback that either reminds individuals of goal-state discrepancies (reminders of errors) or could help to remediate them (corrective information). Using eye-tracking, we examined both state and trait rumination effects on overt measures of attention [first fixation duration (FFD) and total fixation duration (TFD)] during simultaneous presentation of these two types of feedback following failed attempts to answer challenging verbal general knowledge questions (average accuracy ∼30%). After a pre-induction baseline, we induced either a state of rumination using a series of writing exercises centered on the description of an unresolved academic concern or a state of distraction by centering writing on the description of a neutral school day. Within our women-only sample, the Rumination condition, which writing analysis showed was dominated by moody brooding, resulted in some evidence for increased initial dwell time (FFD) on reminders of incorrect answers, while the Distraction condition, which did not elicit any rumination during writing, resulted in increased FFD on the correct answer. Trait brooding augmented the expression of the more negative, moody brooding content in the writing samples of both Induction conditions, but only influenced TFD measures of gaze duration and only during the pre-induction baseline, suggesting that once the inductions activated rumination or distraction states, these suppressed the trait effects in this sample. These results provide some support for attentional-bias models of rumination (attentional scope model, impaired disengagement hypothesis) and have implications for how even temporary states of rumination or distraction might impact processing of academic feedback under conditions of challenge and failure.

An Exploratory Assessment of Epistemic Curiosity in Students at Three Doctor of Pharmacy Programs

Objective. To determine the level of epistemic curiosity in a sample of student pharmacists from three Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs as well as any differences in epistemic curiosity levels that exist between programs and with regard to professional year. Methods. Litman's Epistemic Curiosity Scale (ECS) was administered to student pharmacists at three different PharmD programs. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and overall mean ECS scores as well as mean scores on epistemic curiosity motivated by intellectual interest (I-type) and informational deprivation (D-type) were compared among student pharmacists at the three institutions using analysis of variance. Reliability analyses were also performed on the data. Results. A total of 569 out of 1143 eligible students responded to the survey, for an overall response rate of 49.8%. The mean overall ECS score was 27.6 (SD=4.9). Mean I-type epistemic curiosity was 14.9 (SD=2.8) overall, but was statistically different among the schools. Mean D-type epistemic curiosity was 12.7 (SD=3.2) overall, but was statistically similar among the programs. Overall, the data demonstrated good internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha of .81. Conclusion. This study was the first to characterize epistemic curiosity in student pharmacists and included data from multiple years and multiple programs. Future analyses should investigate associations between epistemic curiosity and other factors of interest to help elucidate how better understanding epistemic curiosity or enhancing it in student pharmacists may help facilitate student success.

Neurobiological substrates of animal personality and cognition in a nonhuman primate (Microcebus murinus)

INTRODUCTION

The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) is an important nonhuman primate model in biomedical research. Numerous studies investigated mouse lemur behavior and possible factors underlying interindividual variation in both, animal personality and cognitive performance. Some effects, such as an age-related decline in executive functioning, have robustly been found across laboratory colonies; however, little is known about the brain structural substrates in mouse lemurs.

METHODS

Here, we provide first exploratory data linking in vivo magnetic resonance imaging of 34 mouse lemurs to performance in a standardized, touchscreen-based task on object discrimination and reversal learning as well as to animal personality under different scenarios in an open field.

RESULTS

High interindividual variability in both brain morphometric and behavioral measurements was found, but only few significant correlations between brain structure and behavior were revealed: Object discrimination learning was linked to the volume of the hippocampus and to temporal lobe thickness, while reversal learning was linked to thalamic volume and the thickness of the anterior cingulate lobe. Emergence latency into the open field correlated with volume of the amygdala. General exploration-avoidance in the empty open-field arena correlated with thicknesses of the anterior cingulate lobe and fronto-parietal substructures. Neophilia, assessed as exploration of a novel object placed in the arena, among others, related to the volume of the caudate nucleus.

CONCLUSION

In summary, our data suggest a prominent role of temporal structures (including the hippocampus) for learning capability, as well as thalamic and anterior cingulate structures for cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. The amygdala, the anterior cingulate lobe, and the caudate nucleus are particularly linked to animal personality in the open-field setting. These findings are congruent with the comparative psychological literature and provide a valuable basis for future studies elucidating aspects of behavioral variation in this nonhuman primate model.

The Gilding-the-Lily Effect: Exploratory Behavior Energized by Curiosity

The widespread metaphor “to gild the lily” suggests that people usually engage in superfluous behaviors. Understanding the cognitive mechanism underlying superfluous behaviors helps individuals to reduce possible waste and even disasters incurred by unnecessary actions. Here, we assumed that curiosity for new information partly pushes people to make needless efforts. This hypothesis was tested through three experiments. In three experiments, we found that when participants knew that expending more efforts than task requirements brought no better results, they still exerted various exploratory activities to fulfill curiosity. These results imply that the impulsion to satisfy the desire for information could partly drive individuals to indulge in unnecessary activities over mission demands. Present research improves the comprehension of irrational superfluous behavior and provides directions to reduce loss and waste caused by gilding the lily.

States of curiosity and interest enhance memory differently in adolescents and in children

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, 10-14 years) 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.

Epistemic Curiosity and Situational Interest: Distant Cousins or Identical Twins?

To what extent are epistemic curiosity and situational interest different indicators for the same underlying psychological mechanism? To answer this question, we conducted two studies. In Study 1, we administered measures of epistemic curiosity and situational interest to 158 students from an all-boys secondary school. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis to find out whether a one-factor or a two-factor solution provides the best fit to the data. The findings supported a one-factor solution. A two-factor solution was only satisfactorily supported if one accepted that the two latent constructs were correlated .99. Study 2 was an experiment in which we experimentally manipulated the amount of prior knowledge 148 students had about a particular thermodynamic phenomenon. Epistemic curiosity and situational interest were each measured four times: before a text was studied, before and after a problem was presented, and after a second text was read. The treatment group studied a text explaining the problem after the problem was presented, whereas the control group read it before the problem was presented. The control group, in other words, gained prior knowledge about the problem. In the treatment group, both epistemic curiosity and situational interest significantly increased while being confronted with the problem. This was not the case in the control group. In addition, only in the treatment group scores on both measures significantly decreased after the text explaining the problem was studied. These findings support a knowledge gap account of both situational interest and epistemic curiosity, suggesting an identical underlying psychological mechanism.

The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on memory formation: insight from behavioral and imaging study

Motivation can be generated intrinsically or extrinsically, and both kinds of motivation show similar facilitatory effects on memory. However, effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on memory formation have not been studied in combination and thus, it is unknown whether they interact and how such interplay is neurally implemented. In the present study, both extrinsic monetary reward and intrinsic curiosity enhanced memory performance, without evidence for an interaction. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that curiosity-driven activity in the ventral striatal reward network appears to work cooperatively with the fronto-parietal attention network, while enhancing memory formation. In contrast, the monetary reward-modulated subsequent memory effect revealed deactivation in parietal midline regions. Thus, curiosity might enhance memory performance by allocation of attentional resources and reward-related processes; while, monetary reward does so by suppression of task-irrelevant processing.

Gossip information increases reward-related oscillatory activity

Previous research has described the process by which the interaction between the firing in midbrain dopamine neurons and the hippocampus results in promoting memory for high-value motivational and rewarding events, both extrinsically and intrinsically driven (i.e. curiosity). Studies on social cognition and gossip have also revealed the activation of similar areas from the reward network. In this study we wanted to assess the electrophysiological correlates of the anticipation and processing of novel information (as an intrinsic cognitive reward) depending on the degree of elicited curiosity and the content of the information. 24 healthy volunteers participated in this EEG experiment. The task consisted of 150 questions and answers divided into three different conditions: trivia-like questions, personal-gossip information about celebrities and personal-neutral information about the same celebrities. Our main results from the ERPs and time-frequency analysis pinpointed main differences for gossip in comparison with personal-neutral and trivia-like conditions. Specifically, we found an increase in beta oscillatory activity in the outcome phase and a decrease of the same frequency band in the expectation phase. Larger amplitudes in P300 component were also found for gossip condition. Finally, gossip answers were the most remembered in a one-week memory test. The arousing value and saliency of gossip information, its rewarding effect evidenced by the increase of beta oscillatory power and the recruitment of areas from the brain reward network in previous fMRI studies, as well as its potential social value have been argued in order to explain its differential processing, encoding and recall.

Shared striatal activity in decisions to satisfy curiosity and hunger at the risk of electric shocks

Curiosity is often portrayed as a desirable feature of human faculty. However, curiosity may come at a cost that sometimes puts people in harmful situations. Here, using a set of behavioural and neuroimaging experiments with stimuli that strongly trigger curiosity (for example, magic tricks), we examine the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the motivational effect of curiosity. We consistently demonstrate that across different samples, people are indeed willing to gamble, subjecting themselves to electric shocks to satisfy their curiosity for trivial knowledge that carries no apparent instrumental value. Also, this influence of curiosity shares common neural mechanisms with that of hunger for food. In particular, we show that acceptance (compared to rejection) of curiosity-driven or incentive-driven gambles is accompanied by enhanced activity in the ventral striatum when curiosity or hunger was elicited, which extends into the dorsal striatum when participants made a decision.

Association between Behavioral Ambidexterity and Brain Health

Appropriately handling and switching exploration of novel knowledge and exploitation of existing knowledge is a fundamental element of genuine innovation in society. Moreover, a mounting number of studies have suggested that such “ambidexterity” is associated not only with organizational performance but also with the human brain. Among these reports, however, there have not been any definitive MRI-based parameters that objectively and easily evaluate such ambidexterity. Therefore, an MRI-based index derived from gray matter volume, called the gray-matter brain healthcare quotient (GM-BHQ), was used to measure the association between ambidexterity and the entire human brain. For this purpose, 200 healthy adults were recruited as subjects to undergo structural T1-weighted imaging and to answer multiple psychological questionnaires. Ambidexterity was evaluated using two scales: the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory II and the Short Grit Scale, as exploration–exploitation indicators of curiosity and grit, respectively. Additionally, to enrich the understanding of these associations, three additional positive thinking scales were used—the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Life Orientation Test—to evaluate self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism, respectively. The authors discovered the GM-BHQ was weakly associated with curiosity, grit, and self-efficacy individually after controlling for age and sex. Furthermore, the GM-BHQ was directly associated with curiosity but indirectly associated with grit in the path model. However, no significant association was found between the GM-BHQ and the other outcome indicators (i.e., self-esteem and optimism). These results suggest that brain health is weakly associated with ambidexterity evaluated using psychological tests.

A Curiosity-Based Learning Method for Spiking Neural Networks

Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) have shown favorable performance recently. Nonetheless, the time-consuming computation on neuron level and complex optimization limit their real-time application. Curiosity has shown great performance in brain learning, which helps biological brains grasp new knowledge efficiently and actively. Inspired by this leaning mechanism, we propose a curiosity-based SNN (CBSNN) model, which contains four main learning processes. Firstly, the network is trained with biologically plausible plasticity principles to get the novelty estimations of all samples in only one epoch; secondly, the CBSNN begins to repeatedly learn the samples whose novelty estimations exceed the novelty threshold and dynamically update the novelty estimations of samples according to the learning results in five epochs; thirdly, in order to avoid the overfitting of the novel samples and forgetting of the learned samples, CBSNN retrains all samples in one epoch; finally, step two and step three are periodically taken until network convergence. Compared with the state-of-the-art Voltage-driven Plasticity-centric SNN (VPSNN) under standard architecture, our model achieves a higher accuracy of 98.55% with only 54.95% of its computation cost on the MNIST hand-written digit recognition dataset. Similar conclusion can also be found out in other datasets, i.e., Iris, NETtalk, Fashion-MNIST, and CIFAR-10, respectively. More experiments and analysis further prove that such curiosity-based learning theory is helpful in improving the efficiency of SNNs. As far as we know, this is the first practical combination of the curiosity mechanism and SNN, and these improvements will make the realistic application of SNNs possible on more specific tasks within the von Neumann framework.

The role of prior knowledge and curiosity in learning

Recent work has argued that curiosity can improve learning. However, these studies also leave open the possibility that being on the verge of knowing can itself induce curiosity. We investigate how prior knowledge relates to curiosity and subsequent learning using a trivia question task. Curiosity in our task is best predicted by a learner's estimate of their current knowledge, more so than an objective measure of what they actually know. Learning is best predicted by both curiosity and an objective measure of knowledge. These results suggest that while curiosity is correlated with knowledge, there is only a small boost in learning from being curious. The implication is that the mechanisms that drive curiosity are not identical to those that drive learning outcomes.

How Curiosity Enhances Hippocampus-Dependent Memory: The Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Exploration (PACE) Framework

Curiosity plays a fundamental role for learning and memory, but the neural mechanisms that stimulate curiosity and its effect on memory are poorly understood. Accumulating evidence suggests that curiosity states are related to modulations in activity in the dopaminergic circuit and that these modulations impact memory encoding and consolidation for both targets of curiosity and incidental information encountered during curiosity states. To account for this evidence, we propose the Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Exploration (PACE) framework, which attempts to explain curiosity and memory in terms of cognitive processes, neural circuits, behavior, and subjective experience. The PACE framework generates testable predictions that can stimulate future investigation of the mechanisms underlying curiosity-related memory enhancements.

A common mechanism underlying choice's influence on preference and memory

Individual control over learning leads to better memory outcomes, yet it is still unclear which aspects of control matter. One's sense of agency could be a key component, but it can be challenging to dissociate it from its consequences on the environment. Here we used a paradigm in which participants in one condition had the opportunity to choose between cues (choice condition) and in another were instructed which cue to select (fixed condition). Because the cues had no effect on the memoranda, we could isolate the effect of choice on memory. Participants also rated the cues for preference before and after encoding, allowing us to test how the number of times a cue was chosen affected its preference. By pooling multiple behavioral studies, we were able to use an individual differences approach to examine the relationship between choice effects on preference and memory. Replicating previous work, we found that immediate and delayed (24-h) recognition memory was higher for items encountered in the choice condition. We also found that cues that were selected more often increased their preference in the choice condition, but actually decreased their preference in the fixed condition, suggesting that choice engaged value-related processes. Critically, we found a positive across-subjects relationship between choice memory enhancements and choice-induced preference change for delayed but not for immediate memory. These data suggest that a shared value-based mechanism enhances preference for choice cues and memory consolidation of the choice outcomes. Thus, the value of choice may play an important role in learning enhancements.

Predictability and Uncertainty in the Pleasure of Music: A Reward for Learning?

Music ranks among the greatest human pleasures. It consistently engages the reward system, and converging evidence implies it exploits predictions to do so. Both prediction confirmations and errors are essential for understanding one's environment, and music offers many of each as it manipulates interacting patterns across multiple timescales. Learning models suggest that a balance of these outcomes (i.e., intermediate complexity) optimizes the reduction of uncertainty to rewarding and pleasurable effect. Yet evidence of a similar pattern in music is mixed, hampered by arbitrary measures of complexity. In the present studies, we applied a well-validated information-theoretic model of auditory expectation to systematically measure two key aspects of musical complexity: predictability (operationalized as information content [IC]), and uncertainty (entropy). In Study 1, we evaluated how these properties affect musical preferences in 43 male and female participants; in Study 2, we replicated Study 1 in an independent sample of 27 people and assessed the contribution of veridical predictability by presenting the same stimuli seven times. Both studies revealed significant quadratic effects of IC and entropy on liking that outperformed linear effects, indicating reliable preferences for music of intermediate complexity. An interaction between IC and entropy further suggested preferences for more predictability during more uncertain contexts, which would facilitate uncertainty reduction. Repeating stimuli decreased liking ratings but did not disrupt the preference for intermediate complexity. Together, these findings support long-hypothesized optimal zones of predictability and uncertainty in musical pleasure with formal modeling, relating the pleasure of music listening to the intrinsic reward of learning.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Abstract pleasures, such as music, claim much of our time, energy, and money despite lacking any clear adaptive benefits like food or shelter. Yet as music manipulates patterns of melody, rhythm, and more, it proficiently exploits our expectations. Given the importance of anticipating and adapting to our ever-changing environments, making and evaluating uncertain predictions can have strong emotional effects. Accordingly, we present evidence that listeners consistently prefer music of intermediate predictive complexity, and that preferences shift toward expected musical outcomes in more uncertain contexts. These results are consistent with theories that emphasize the intrinsic reward of learning, both by updating inaccurate predictions and validating accurate ones, which is optimal in environments that present manageable predictive challenges (i.e., reducible uncertainty).

The role of expecting feedback during decision-making under risk

Sometimes choice is followed by outcome feedback and other times it is not. It remains unknown whether humans prefer gambling when they expect feedback to be revealed. Regarding this question, decision-making theories make alternative predictions. Some theories have proposed that choice is influenced by whether one expects to be disappointed in the future. Given that feedback is sometimes disappointing, these theories predict increased aversion towards gambling when feedback is expected compared to when feedback is not expected. The opposite effect is predicted by theories of curiosity, which postulate reduction of uncertainty as an important behavioural drive. Given that feedback reduces uncertainty, these theories predict that gambling will be favoured when feedback is expected. To examine whether expecting feedback influences gambling behaviour, we recorded functional neuroimaging data while participants performed a novel decision-making task requiring to chose between a sure option and a gamble. Crucially, participants expected to receive feedback in some trials but not in other trials. Consistent with theories of curiosity, we found that expecting feedback increased gambling propensity. At the neural level, at option presentation the increased value of gambling during feedback was reflected in activity in the ventral striatum. This suggests that, together with its established role in signalling reward, the ventral striatum also processes a form of epistemic value. Our study demonstrates that gambling becomes more attractive when feedback is expected and suggests that striatal activity could signal the value of feedback information.

Surprise, Curiosity, and Confusion Promote Knowledge Exploration: Evidence for Robust Effects of Epistemic Emotions

Research has started to acknowledge the importance of emotions for complex learning and cognitive performance. However, research on epistemic emotions has only recently become more prominent. Research in educational psychology in particular has mostly focused on examining achievement emotions instead of epistemic emotions. Furthermore, only few studies have addressed functional mechanisms underlying multiple different epistemic emotions simultaneously, and only one study has systematically compared the origins and effects of epistemic emotions with other emotions relevant to knowledge generation (i.e., achievement emotions; Vogl et al., 2019). The present article aimed to replicate the findings from Vogl et al. (2019) exploring within-person interrelations, origins, and outcomes of the epistemic emotions surprise, curiosity, and confusion, and the achievement emotions pride and shame, as well as to analyze their robustness and generalizability across two different study settings (online; Study 1, n = 169 vs. lab; Study 2, n = 79). In addition, the previous findings by Vogl et al. (2019, Study 3) and the present two new studies were meta-analytically integrated to consolidate evidence on origins and outcomes of epistemic emotions. The results of the two new studies largely replicated the findings by Vogl et al. (2019). Combined with the meta-analytic results, the findings confirm distinct patterns of antecedents for epistemic vs. achievement emotions: Pride and shame were more strongly associated with the correctness of a person's answer (i.e., accuracy), whereas surprise, curiosity, and confusion were more strongly related to incorrect responses a person was confident in (i.e., high-confidence errors) producing cognitive incongruity. Furthermore, in contrast to achievement emotions, epistemic emotions had positive effects on the exploration of knowledge. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Are awe-prone people more curious? The relationship between dispositional awe, curiosity, and academic outcomes

OBJECTIVE

Guided by a functional account of awe, we aimed to test the hypothesis that people who often feel awe are also more curious (Studies 1 and 2), and that this relationship in turn relates to academic outcomes (Study 3).

METHOD

In Study 1 (n = 1,005), we used a self-report approach to test the relationship between dispositional awe and curiosity. In Study 2 (n = 100), we used a peer-report approach to test if participants' dispositional awe related to how curious they were rated by their friends. In Study 3, in a sample of 447 high school adolescents we tested if dispositional awe related to academic outcomes via curiosity.

RESULTS

We found that dispositional awe was positively related to people's self-rated curiosity (Study 1) and how curious they were rated by their friends (Study 2). In Study 3, we found that dispositional awe was related to academic outcomes via curiosity.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that among the seven positive emotion dispositions tested, awe was related to unique variance in curiosity, and this link in turn predicted academic outcomes. This work further characterizes awe as an epistemic emotion and suggests that activities that inspire awe may improve academic outcomes.

Shocking secret you won’t believe! Emotional arousal in clickbait headlines

Purpose

Clickbait has become a popular strategy for attracting online users by enticing them to follow the link to a particular website to read further. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence of how clickbait headlines affect online users’ emotional and behavioral responses, specifically emotional arousal and intention to read news. In addition, it is an early attempt to examine pupillary dilation response as an indicator of emotional arousal in the online news context.

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment was conducted primarily to examine the levels of emotional arousal evoked by two treatment groups of online news headlines, news and clickbait, compared to a neutral control group. Emotional arousal was assessed using two approaches – pupillary dilation response recorded by an eye-tracking device and the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) – and the results were compared. The influence of emotional arousal on intention to read news was hypothesized and tested.

Findings

The level of emotional arousal evoked by the headlines varies. In general, clickbait headlines generate a higher level of emotional arousal than do the neutral headlines but a lower level than the news headlines. The results also indicate that the level of emotional arousal measured by pupillary dilation response and by SAM are somewhat consistent. Emotional arousal appears to be a significant predictor of intention to read news.

Originality/value

This study is an initial attempt to investigate how clickbait headlines influence online users’ perceptions and responses, which will be of interest to researchers and news media publishers. The current study also provides evidence for adopting pupillary dilation response, an unobtrusive measure of emotional response, as an alternative methodology for future studies that investigate emotional arousal related to textual information in the online news context.

Children learn words easier when they are interested in the category to which the word belongs

The overall pattern of vocabulary development is relatively similar across children learning different languages. However, there are considerable differences in the words known to individual children. Historically, this variability has been explained in terms of differences in the input. Here, we examine the alternate possibility that children's individual interest in specific natural categories shapes the words they are likely to learn - a child who is more interested in animals will learn a new animal name easier relative to a new vehicle name. Two-year-old German-learning children (N = 39) were exposed to four novel word-object associations for objects from four different categories. Prior to the word learning task, we measured their interest in the categories that the objects belonged to. Our measure was pupillary change following exposure to familiar objects from these four categories, with increased pupillary change interpreted as increased interest in that category. Children showed more robust learning of word-object associations from categories they were more interested in relative to categories they were less interested in. We further found that interest in the novel objects themselves influenced learning, with distinct influences of both category interest and object interest on learning. These results suggest that children's interest in different natural categories shapes their word learning. This provides evidence for the strikingly intuitive possibility that a child who is more interested in animals will learn novel animal names easier than a child who is more interested in vehicles.

Motivation to Learn

Learners are more likely to remember what they study if they are motivated to do so. Such motivation can be externally driven by prospective rewards, but also intrinsically driven by curiosity. The present research focused on the role of curiosity during intentional learning. We examined the potential mnemonic benefit of curiosity, whether this benefit is undermined when learners are externally motivated to learn by rewards, and whether it can be attributed to increased study time for information they are more curious about. In two experiments, participants were presented with trivia questions, rated their level of curiosity about each question, and then studied the answers, either with or without a prospect of reward for correct recall on a subsequent test. Study time was either fixed (Experiment 1) or self-paced (Experiment 2). 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. When learning was self-paced, study time increased with curiosity but did not account for the effect of curiosity on memory. The results highlight the important role curiosity plays in learning and suggest that curiosity and rewards can be used together effectively to promote students' learning.

Neuroscientism, the neuroscience of learning

Purpose

Although the field of neuroscience has evolved dramatically, little research has attempted to conceptualize the impact of neuroscience on the field of human resource development (HRD). The purpose of this study is an integrative review of the influential relationship between neuroscience and workplace learning including applicable implications for HRD research and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

By reviewing 93 studies on neuroscience and brain-based learning published between 1995 and 2017, the authors synthesized their findings.

Findings

This study discusses the basic concepts of neuroscience such as the structure and functions of the brain, neuroscientific findings about memory and cognition, the effect of neural transmitters on memory and cognition and the neuroscience of learning. This study also illustrates brain-based learning styles affecting learning and describes various neuroscientific learning principles and models that can be applied to practical planning and the delivery of workplace learning and HRD activities.

Originality/value

This study concludes with brain-based learning principles called neuroscientism compared with traditional learning theories. It also includes several brain-based learning cases from workplace settings and implications for future research and further HRD practices.

Functional connectivity mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and curiosity

Curiosity is an important driving force for human development. This study employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data (n = 400) and a cross-validation-based predictive framework based on the functional connectivity between and within the default mode network (DMN), fronto-parietal task control network (FPN), and salience network (SN) to explore the relationship between these and curiosity. We found that the curiosity network consisting of functional connections in DMN, FPN, and SN can successfully predict curiosity, and the functional connections within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and between its nodes and the angular gyrus (AG) made a greater contribution to prediction power. More important, although curiosity has long been considered the main intrinsic motivation of learning and self-efficacy (individual's confidence in his or her own ability) is the primary factor affecting learning motivation, few studies have explored the relationship between the two. Therefore, we speculated that the relationship between the curiosity brain network and curiosity might also be related to self-efficacy. In this study, the strength of the curiosity network was calculated as a mediation variable to explore the relationship between self-efficacy and curiosity. The results revealed that the strength of the curiosity brain network mediates the association between self-efficacy and curiosity score. Our findings suggest that self-efficacy plays an important role in shaping individuals' trait curiosity and extends understanding of the neural mechanism of curiosity.

Feedback at Test Can Reverse the Retrieval-Effort Effect

The testing effect refers to the finding that retrieving previously encoded material typically improves subsequent recall performance more on a later test than does restudying that material. Storm et al. (2014) demonstrated, however, that when feedback is provided on such a later test the testing advantage then turns to a restudying advantage on subsequent tests. The goal of the present research was to examine whether there is a similar consequence of feedback when the difficulty of initial retrieval practice is modulated. Replicating prior research, we found that on an initial delayed test, recall of to-be-learned items was better following difficult than easy practice. Critically, however, providing immediate feedback on an initial delayed test reversed this pattern. Our findings are consistent with a distribution-based interpretation of how feedback at test modifies recall performance.

Episodic curiosity for avoiding asteroids: Per-trial information gain for choice outcomes drive information seeking

Humans often appear to desire information for its own sake, but it is presently unclear what drives this desire. The important role that resolving uncertainty plays in stimulating information seeking has suggested a tight coupling between the intrinsic motivation to gather information and performance gains, construed as a drive for long-term learning. Using an asteroid-avoidance game that allows us to study learning and information seeking at an experimental time-scale, we show that the incentive for information-seeking can be separated from a long-term learning outcome, with information-seeking best predicted by per-trial outcome uncertainty. Specifically, participants were more willing to take time penalties to receive feedback on trials with increasing uncertainty in the outcome of their choices. We found strong group and individual level support for a linear relationship between feedback request rate and information gain as determined by per-trial outcome uncertainty. This information better reflects filling in the gaps of the episodic record of choice outcomes than long-term skill acquisition or assessment. Our results suggest that this easy to compute quantity can drive information-seeking, potentially allowing simple organisms to intelligently gather information for a diverse episodic record of the environment without having to anticipate the impact on future performance.

Selective effects of errorful generation on recognition memory: the role of motivation and surprise

The current research examined the effects of errorful generation on memory, focusing particularly on the roles of motivation and surprise. In two experiments, participants were first presented with photographs of faces and were asked to associate four facts with each photograph. On Generate trials, the participants guessed two of the facts (Guess targets) before those correct facts, and another two correct facts (Study targets), were revealed. On the remaining Read trials, all four facts were presented without a guessing stage. In Experiment 1, participants also ranked their motivation to know the answers before they were revealed, or their surprise on learning the true answers. Guess targets were subsequently better recognised than the concurrently presented, non-guessed Study targets. Guess targets were also better recognised than Read targets, and recognition of Study and Read targets did not differ. Errorful generation also increased self-reported motivation, but not surprise. Experiment 2 showed that the results of Experiment 1 can outlive a 20-minute delay, and that they generalise to a more challenging recognition test. Together, the results suggest that errorful generation improves memory specifically for the guessed fact, and this may be linked to an increase in motivation to learn that fact.

We should pay more attention to student curiosity

INTRODUCTION

Educators sometimes become frustrated when students appear interested only in learning the "right answers for the exam" versus being truly engaged and taking initiative to develop their own questions that add to the learning process. Some have suggested that because information is so readily accessible in today's digital environment that the desire to undertake scholarly inquiry may gradually be lost.

COMMENTARY

Curiosity is a trait that drives people to ask exploratory questions and find creative ways to solve problems. It has been linked with a variety of desired academic and professional outcomes, but is a construct rarely addressed within educational literature. This commentary suggests that curiosity is a characteristic to which pharmacy educators should pay more attention. A series of questions are posed for pharmacy educators to consider with regard to screening for, promoting, and developing curiosity within our student population.

IMPLICATIONS

Pharmacy educators need to be intentional about designing programs and instructional practices in ways that promote and incentivize student curiosity. The questions posed to the Academy are intended to evoke discussion and further study of curiosity within pharmacy education.

"A" for Effort: Rewarding Effortful Retrieval Attempts Improves Learning From General Knowledge Errors in Women

Previous research has shown that the prospect of attaining a reward can promote task-engagement, up-regulate attention toward reward-relevant information, and facilitate enhanced encoding of new information into declarative memory. However, past research on reward-based enhancement of declarative memory has focused primarily on paradigms in which rewards are contingent upon accurate responses. Yet, findings from test-enhanced learning show that making errors can also be useful for learning if those errors represent effortful retrieval attempts and are followed by corrective feedback. Here, we used a challenging general knowledge task to examine the effects of explicitly rewarding retrieval effort, defined as a semantically plausible answer to a question (referenced to a semantic knowledge database www.mangelslab.org/bknorms), regardless of response accuracy. In particular, we asked whether intermittent rewards following effortful incorrect responses facilitated learning from corrective feedback as measured by incidental learning outcomes on a 24-48 h delayed retest. Given that effort-contingent extrinsic rewards represent the intersection between an internal locus of control and competency, we compared participants in this "Effort" group to three other groups in a between-subjects design: a Luck group that framed rewards as related to participant-chosen lottery numbers (reward with internal control, not competence-based), a random Award group that framed rewards as computer generated (no control, not competence-based), and a Control group with no reward, but matched on all other task features. Both men and women in the Effort group showed increased self-reports of concentration and positive feelings following the receipt of rewards, as well as subjective effort on the retest, compared to the Control group. However, only women additionally exhibited performance benefits of effort framing on error correction. These benefits were found for both rewarded and non-rewarded trials, but only for correction of low confidence errors, suggesting that effort-contingent rewards produced task-level changes in motivation to learn less familiar information in women, rather than trial-level influences in encoding or consolidation. The Luck and Award groups did not demonstrate significant motivational or behavioral benefits for either gender. These results suggest that both reward context and gender are important factors contributing to the effectiveness of rewards as tools to enhance learning from errors.

Common neural code for reward and information value

Adaptive information seeking is critical for goal-directed behavior. Growing evidence suggests the importance of intrinsic motives such as curiosity or need for novelty, mediated through dopaminergic valuation systems, in driving information-seeking behavior. However, valuing information for its own sake can be highly suboptimal when agents need to evaluate instrumental benefit of information in a forward-looking manner. Here we show that information-seeking behavior in humans is driven by subjective value that is shaped by both instrumental and noninstrumental motives, and that this subjective value of information (SVOI) shares a common neural code with more basic reward value. Specifically, using a task where subjects could purchase information to reduce uncertainty about outcomes of a monetary lottery, we found information purchase decisions could be captured by a computational model of SVOI incorporating utility of anticipation, a form of noninstrumental motive for information seeking, in addition to instrumental benefits. Neurally, trial-by-trial variation in SVOI was correlated with activity in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, cross-categorical decoding revealed that, within these regions, SVOI and expected utility of lotteries were represented using a common code. These findings provide support for the common currency hypothesis and shed insight on neurocognitive mechanisms underlying information-seeking behavior.

Confidence modulates exploration and exploitation in value-based learning

Uncertainty is ubiquitous in cognitive processing. In this study, we aim to investigate the ability agents possess to track and report the noise inherent in their mental operations, often in the form of confidence judgments. Here, we argue that humans can use uncertainty inherent in their representations of value beliefs to arbitrate between exploration and exploitation. Such uncertainty is reflected in explicit confidence judgments. Using a novel variant of a multi-armed bandit paradigm, we studied how beliefs were formed and how uncertainty in the encoding of these value beliefs (belief confidence) evolved over time. We found that people used uncertainty to arbitrate between exploration and exploitation, reflected in a higher tendency toward exploration when their confidence in their value representations was low. We furthermore found that value uncertainty can be linked to frameworks of metacognition in decision making in two ways. First, belief confidence drives decision confidence, i.e. people's evaluation of their own choices. Second, individuals with higher metacognitive insight into their choices were also better at tracing the uncertainty in their environment. Together, these findings argue that such uncertainty representations play a key role in the context of cognitive control.

Effective Augmentation of Creativity-Involving Productivity Consequent to Spontaneous Selectivity in Knowledge Acquisition

The results of many studies have suggested that we actively select information from the environment. However, the functional consequences of such selectivity in knowledge acquisition remain unclear, even though it is a vital factor in determining the characteristics of our future knowledge and cognition. We hypothesized that spontaneous selectivity in knowledge acquisition results in effective augmentation of productivity, especially in creativity-demanding task. To test this, we conducted experiments in which subjects acquired novel compositional words during their rapid presentation, evaluated memory confidence rates for the acquired words, and then produced essays based on these words. First, in experiment 1, we showed that the level of confidence in the recognition memory for the words positively related with the length of the essays (a measure of creativity-involving productivity in quantity). Additionally, we found that the semantic distance from the essay to the components of the compositional word (a measure of creative-productivity in quality) was farther for the word with higher memory confidence than for the word with lower memory confidence, suggesting creative leaps when writing the former. While this result supported our hypothesis, it might also reflect better memory that was independent of spontaneous selection. Thus, in a different subject group, we conducted a similar experiment (experiment 2) in which two of the 20 compositional words were presented more often (five times per block) to force memorization. Again, consistent with our hypothesis, essays based on spontaneously memorized words (presented once per block) were significantly longer than those produced using the forcedly memorized words. Therefore, better memory per se did not explain the higher productivity. Instead, these results suggested that the higher creativity-involving productivity was consequent to spontaneous selectivity in the knowledge acquisition. Additionally, we propose a possible mechanism for the observed results based on the results of a neural network simulation. In this simulation, we found that novel information that was assigned to locations more easily accessible to the entire network was better assimilated and therefore selectively acquired. Based on this simulation, we moderately suggest that spontaneously acquired knowledge effectively confers productivity because it effectively activates large parts of the neural networks.

Monkeys are curious about counterfactual outcomes

Many non-human animals show exploratory behaviors. It remains unclear whether any possess human-like curiosity. We previously proposed three criteria for applying the term curiosity to animal behavior: (1) the subject is willing to sacrifice reward to obtain information, (2) the information provides no immediate instrumental or strategic benefit, and (3) the amount the subject is willing to pay depends systematically on the amount of information available. In previous work on information-seeking in animals, information generally predicts upcoming rewards, and animals' decisions may therefore be a byproduct of reinforcement processes. Here we get around this potential confound by taking advantage of macaques' ability to reason counterfactually (that is, about outcomes that could have occurred had the subject chosen differently). Specifically, macaques sacrificed fluid reward to obtain information about counterfactual outcomes. Moreover, their willingness to pay scaled with the information (Shannon entropy) offered by the counterfactual option. These results demonstrate the existence of human-like curiosity in non-human primates according to our criteria, which circumvent several confounds associated with less stringent criteria.

Supportive hand-holding attenuates pupillary responses to stress in adult couples

BACKGROUND

Social relationships, particularly marriage, have been shown to ameliorate the potentially pathogenic impact of stressful events but prior research has been mostly aimed at downstream effects, with less research on real-time reactivity. Pupillometry is an innovative procedure that allows us to see the effects of acute stress in real time. The muscles that control pupil size are linked to the autonomic nervous system, so that when stressed, the pupils dilate; this occurs within 200ms. This quick response allows us to see the immediate effects of acute stress on the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and the real-time effects of social support in buffering stress.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to examine the dampening effects of received social support on the ANS's pupillary response.

METHODS

Eighty individuals (40 couples) were randomly assigned to either a spousal support (i.e., spouse hand-holding) or non-support condition (i.e., alone) and administered a Stroop task while pupil dilation was measured.

RESULTS

The Stroop task elicited a stress reaction in terms of pupil dilation in response to the incongruent task trials. Participants in the support condition showed accelerated habituation to the stress task (p < .001), and less pupil reactivity (p < .001) providing evidence for buffering effects of social support via spousal presence and hand-holding.

CONCLUSIONS

These results reveal the speed at which stress-buffering occurs, suggesting that pupillometry could be a good method to address the immediate dampening effects of social support.

Costly curiosity: People pay a price to resolve an uncertain gamble early

Humans are inherently curious creatures, continuously seeking out information about future outcomes. Such advance information is often valuable, potentially allowing people to select better courses of action. In non-human animals, this drive for information can be so strong that they forego food or water to find out a few seconds earlier whether an uncertain option will provide a reward. Here, we assess whether people will exhibit a similar sub-optimal preference for advance information. Participants played a card-flipping task where they were probabilistically rewarded based on the pattern of 3 cards that were revealed after a 5-s delay. During this delay, participants could instead pay a cost to find out the next card's identity immediately. This choice to find out early did not influence the eventual outcome. Participants preferred to find out early about 80% of the time when the information was free; they were even willing to incur an expense to get advance information about the eventual outcome. The expected magnitude of the outcome, however, had little impact on the likelihood of finding out early. These results suggest that humans, like animals, value non-instrumental information and will pay a price for such information, independent of its utility.

Lighting the wick in the candle of learning: generating a prediction stimulates curiosity

Curiosity stimulates learning. We tested whether curiosity itself can be stimulated-not by extrinsic rewards but by an intrinsic desire to know whether a prediction holds true. Participants performed a numerical-facts learning task in which they had to generate either a prediction or an example before rating their curiosity and seeing the correct answer. More facts received high-curiosity ratings in the prediction condition, which indicates that generating predictions stimulated curiosity. In turn, high curiosity, compared with low curiosity, was associated with better memory for the correct answer. Concurrent pupillary data revealed that higher curiosity was associated with larger pupil dilation during anticipation of the correct answer. Pupil dilation was further enhanced when participants generated a prediction rather than an example, both during anticipation of the correct answer and in response to seeing it. These results suggest that generating a prediction stimulates curiosity by increasing the relevance of the knowledge gap.

Individual Variations in Effort: Assessing Pupillometry for the Hearing Impaired

Assessing effort in speech comprehension for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners is important, as effortful processing of speech can limit their hearing rehabilitation. We examined the measure of pupil dilation in its capacity to accommodate the heterogeneity that is present within clinical populations by studying lexical access in users with sensorineural hearing loss, who perceive speech via cochlear implants (CIs). We compared the pupillary responses of 15 experienced CI users and 14 age-matched normal-hearing (NH) controls during auditory lexical decision. A growth curve analysis was applied to compare the responses between the groups. NH listeners showed a coherent pattern of pupil dilation that reflects the task demands of the experimental manipulation and a homogenous time course of dilation. CI listeners showed more variability in the morphology of pupil dilation curves, potentially reflecting variable sources of effort across individuals. In follow-up analyses, we examined how speech perception, a task that relies on multiple stages of perceptual analyses, poses multiple sources of increased effort for HI listeners, wherefore we might not be measuring the same source of effort for HI as for NH listeners. We argue that interindividual variability among HI listeners can be clinically meaningful in attesting not only the magnitude but also the locus of increased effort. The understanding of individual variations in effort requires experimental paradigms that (a) differentiate the task demands during speech comprehension, (b) capture pupil dilation in its time course per individual listeners, and (c) investigate the range of individual variability present within clinical and NH populations.