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Rosati AG, Felsche E, Cole MF, Atencia R, Rukundo J. Flexible information-seeking in chimpanzees. Cognition 2024; 251:105898. [PMID: 39059117 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2024] [Revised: 07/11/2024] [Accepted: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024]
Abstract
Humans can flexibly use metacognition to monitor their own knowledge and strategically acquire new information when needed. While humans can deploy these skills across a variety of contexts, most evidence for metacognition in animals has focused on simple situations, such as seeking out information about the location of food. Here, we examine the flexibility, breadth, and limits of this skill in chimpanzees. We tested semi-free-ranging chimpanzees on a novel task where they could seek information by standing up to peer into different containers. In Study 1, we tested n = 47 chimpanzees to assess if chimpanzees would spontaneously engage in information-seeking without prior experience, as well as to characterize individual variation in this propensity. We found that many chimpanzees engaged in information-seeking with minimal experience, and that younger chimpanzees and females were more likely to do so. In two subsequent studies, we then further tested chimpanzees who initially showed robust information-seeking on new variations of this task, to disentangle the cognitive processing shaping their behaviors. In Study 2, we examined how a subset of n = 12 chimpanzees applied these skills to seek information about the location versus the identity of rewards, and found that chimpanzees were equally adept at seeking out location and identity information. In Study 3, we examined whether a subset of n = 6 chimpanzees could apply these skills to make more efficacious decisions when faced with uncertainty about reward payoffs. Chimpanzees were able to use information-seeking to resolve risk and choose more optimally when faced with uncertain payoffs, although they often also engaged in information-seeking when it was not strictly necessary. These results identify core features of flexible metacognition that chimpanzees share with humans, as well as constraints that may represent key evolutionary shifts in human cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra G Rosati
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
| | - Elisa Felsche
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Megan F Cole
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | | | - Joshua Rukundo
- Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary / Chimpanzee Trust, Entebbe, Uganda
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2
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Le Cunff AL. Systematic Curiosity as an Integrative Tool for Human Flourishing: A Conceptual Review and Framework. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2024:10.1007/s12124-024-09856-6. [PMID: 38977624 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-024-09856-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
This paper reviews seventy years of theoretical research and proposes systematic curiosity as an integrative tool for human flourishing with a focus on four key aspects: firstly, acknowledge curiosity's multidimensional nature instead of harmonizing its complex taxonomy; secondly, emphasizing intentional curiosity as opposed to impulsive curiosity; thirdly, prioritizing domain-general curiosity for broader applicability across educational, organizational, and therapeutic settings; and lastly, focusing on curiosity as a developable skill rather than an innate trait. By segmenting systematic curiosity into cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components, and relating these to interactions with the self, others, and the world, the framework aims to apply across the spectrum of human experience. Furthermore, the framework encourages an exploration of various evidence-based activities for flourishing so individuals can discover the most suitable strategies for their specific context. Implications for both theory and practice are examined, limitations are discussed, and avenues for future research are suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne-Laure Le Cunff
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, SE5 8AB, UK.
- Ness Labs, 40 Downham Road, London, N1 5AL, UK.
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Forss S, Ciria A, Clark F, Galusca CL, Harrison D, Lee S. A transdisciplinary view on curiosity beyond linguistic humans: animals, infants, and artificial intelligence. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024; 99:979-998. [PMID: 38287201 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
Curiosity is a core driver for life-long learning, problem-solving and decision-making. In a broad sense, curiosity is defined as the intrinsically motivated acquisition of novel information. Despite a decades-long history of curiosity research and the earliest human theories arising from studies of laboratory rodents, curiosity has mainly been considered in two camps: 'linguistic human' and 'other'. This is despite psychology being heritable, and there are many continuities in cognitive capacities across the animal kingdom. Boundary-pushing cross-disciplinary debates on curiosity are lacking, and the relative exclusion of pre-linguistic infants and non-human animals has led to a scientific impasse which more broadly impedes the development of artificially intelligent systems modelled on curiosity in natural agents. In this review, we synthesize literature across multiple disciplines that have studied curiosity in non-verbal systems. By highlighting how similar findings have been produced across the separate disciplines of animal behaviour, developmental psychology, neuroscience, and computational cognition, we discuss how this can be used to advance our understanding of curiosity. We propose, for the first time, how features of curiosity could be quantified and therefore studied more operationally across systems: across different species, developmental stages, and natural or artificial agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Forss
- Collegium Helveticum, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Alejandra Ciria
- School of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Fay Clark
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Cristina-Loana Galusca
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, CNRS Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
| | - David Harrison
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Saein Lee
- Interdisciplinary Program of EcoCreative, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Sakaki M, Ten A, Stone H, Murayama K. Role of Metacognitive Confidence Judgments in Curiosity: Different Effects of Confidence on Curiosity Across Epistemic and Perceptual Domains. Cogn Sci 2024; 48:e13474. [PMID: 38923077 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13474] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2024] [Revised: 05/14/2024] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that curiosity is sometimes induced by novel information one has no relevant knowledge about, but it is sometimes induced by new information about something that one is familiar with and has prior knowledge about. However, the conditions under which novelty or familiarity triggers curiosity remain unclear. Using metacognitive confidence judgments as a proxy to quantify the amount of knowledge, this study evaluates the relationship between the amount of relevant knowledge and curiosity. We reviewed previous studies on the relationship between subjective curiosity and confidence and reanalyzed existing large-sample data. The findings indicate that the relationship between curiosity and confidence differs depending on the nature of the stimuli: epistemic versus perceptual. Regarding perceptual stimuli, curiosity is stronger when individuals have lower confidence levels. By contrast, for epistemic stimuli, curiosity is stronger when individuals have higher confidence levels. These results suggest that curiosity triggered by perceptual stimuli is based on perceived novelty, whereas that triggered by epistemic stimuli is based on familiarity with prior knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michiko Sakaki
- Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen
- Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology
| | - Alexandr Ten
- Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen
| | - Hannah Stone
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading
| | - Kou Murayama
- Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen
- Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading
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Poli F, O'Reilly JX, Mars RB, Hunnius S. Curiosity and the dynamics of optimal exploration. Trends Cogn Sci 2024; 28:441-453. [PMID: 38413257 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2023] [Revised: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
What drives our curiosity remains an elusive and hotly debated issue, with multiple hypotheses proposed but a cohesive account yet to be established. This review discusses traditional and emergent theories that frame curiosity as a desire to know and a drive to learn, respectively. We adopt a model-based approach that maps the temporal dynamics of various factors underlying curiosity-based exploration, such as uncertainty, information gain, and learning progress. In so doing, we identify the limitations of past theories and posit an integrated account that harnesses their strengths in describing curiosity as a tool for optimal environmental exploration. In our unified account, curiosity serves as a 'common currency' for exploration, which must be balanced with other drives such as safety and hunger to achieve efficient action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Poli
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Jill X O'Reilly
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Rogier B Mars
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Sabine Hunnius
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Poli F, Ghilardi T, Beijers R, de Weerth C, Hinne M, Mars RB, Hunnius S. Individual differences in processing speed and curiosity explain infant habituation and dishabituation performance. Dev Sci 2024; 27:e13460. [PMID: 38155558 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Revised: 08/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
Habituation and dishabituation are the most prevalent measures of infant cognitive functioning, and they have reliably been shown to predict later cognitive outcomes. Yet, the exact mechanisms underlying infant habituation and dishabituation are still unclear. To investigate them, we tested 106 8-month-old infants on a classic habituation task and a novel visual learning task. We used a hierarchical Bayesian model to identify individual differences in sustained attention, learning performance, processing speed and curiosity from the visual learning task. These factors were then related to habituation and dishabituation. We found that habituation time was related to individual differences in processing speed, while dishabituation was related to curiosity, but only for infants who did not habituate. These results offer novel insights in the mechanisms underlying habituation and serve as proof of concept for hierarchical models as an effective tool to measure individual differences in infant cognitive functioning. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We used a hierarchical Bayesian model to measure individual differences in infants' processing speed, learning performance, sustained attention, and curiosity. Faster processing speed was related to shorter habituation time. High curiosity was related to stronger dishabituation responses, but only for infants who did not habituate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Poli
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Tommaso Ghilardi
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Roseriet Beijers
- Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Carolina de Weerth
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Max Hinne
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Rogier B Mars
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Sabine Hunnius
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Birulés J, Goupil L, Josse J, Fort M. The Role of Talking Faces in Infant Language Learning: Mind the Gap between Screen-Based Settings and Real-Life Communicative Interactions. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1167. [PMID: 37626523 PMCID: PMC10452843 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13081167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Revised: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Over the last few decades, developmental (psycho) linguists have demonstrated that perceiving talking faces audio-visually is important for early language acquisition. Using mostly well-controlled and screen-based laboratory approaches, this line of research has shown that paying attention to talking faces is likely to be one of the powerful strategies infants use to learn their native(s) language(s). In this review, we combine evidence from these screen-based studies with another line of research that has studied how infants learn novel words and deploy their visual attention during naturalistic play. In our view, this is an important step toward developing an integrated account of how infants effectively extract audiovisual information from talkers' faces during early language learning. We identify three factors that have been understudied so far, despite the fact that they are likely to have an important impact on how infants deploy their attention (or not) toward talking faces during social interactions: social contingency, speaker characteristics, and task- dependencies. Last, we propose ideas to address these issues in future research, with the aim of reducing the existing knowledge gap between current experimental studies and the many ways infants can and do effectively rely upon the audiovisual information extracted from talking faces in their real-life language environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Birulés
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, CNRS UMR 5105, Université Grenoble Alpes, 38058 Grenoble, France; (L.G.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
| | - Louise Goupil
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, CNRS UMR 5105, Université Grenoble Alpes, 38058 Grenoble, France; (L.G.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
| | - Jérémie Josse
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, CNRS UMR 5105, Université Grenoble Alpes, 38058 Grenoble, France; (L.G.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
| | - Mathilde Fort
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, CNRS UMR 5105, Université Grenoble Alpes, 38058 Grenoble, France; (L.G.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, INSERM U1028-CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, 69500 Bron, France
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McNeely-White KL, Cleary AM. Piquing Curiosity: Déjà vu-Like States Are Associated with Feelings of Curiosity and Information-Seeking Behaviors. J Intell 2023; 11:112. [PMID: 37367514 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11060112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Revised: 05/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Curiosity during learning increases information-seeking behaviors and subsequent memory retrieval success, yet the mechanisms that drive curiosity and its accompanying information-seeking behaviors remain elusive. Hints throughout the literature suggest that curiosity may result from a metacognitive signal-possibly of closeness to a not yet accessible piece of information-that in turn leads the experiencer to seek out additional information that will resolve a perceptibly small knowledge gap. We examined whether metacognition sensations thought to signal the likely presence of an as yet unretrieved relevant memory (such as familiarity or déjà vu) might be involved. Across two experiments, when cued recall failed, participants gave higher curiosity ratings during reported déjà vu (Experiment 1) or déjà entendu (Experiment 2), and these states were associated with increased expenditure of limited experimental resources to discover the answer. Participants also spent more time attempting to retrieve information and generated more incorrect information when experiencing these déjà vu-like states than when not. We propose that metacognition signaling of the possible presence of an as yet unretrieved but relevant memory may drive curiosity and prompt information-seeking that includes further search efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anne M Cleary
- Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
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