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

How do adolescents consider life and death? A cognition-to-action framework for suicide prevention

Rising rates of suicide fatality, attempts, and ideations among adolescents aged 10-19 over the past two decades represent a national public health priority. Theories that seek to understand suicidal ideation overwhelmingly focus on the transition from ideation to attempt and on a sole cognition: active suicidal ideation - the serious consideration of killing one's self, with less attention to non-suicidal cognitions that emerge during adolescence that may have implications for suicidal behavior. A large body of research exists that characterizes adolescence not only as a period of heightened onset and prevalence of active suicidal ideation and the desire to no longer be alive (i.e., passive suicidal ideation), but also for non-suicidal cognitions about life and death. Our review synthesizes extant literature in the content, timing and mental imagery of thoughts adolescents have about their (1) life; and (2) mortality that may co-occur with active and passive suicidal ideation that have received limited attention in adolescent suicidology. Our "cognition-to-action framework for adolescent suicide prevention" builds on existing ideation-to-action theories to identify life and non-suicidal mortality cognitions during adolescence that represent potential leverage points for the prevention of attempted suicide and premature death during this period and across the life span.

The role of intrinsic reward in adolescent word learning

Relatively little work has focused on why we are motivated to learn words. In adults, recent experiments have shown that intrinsic reward signals accompany successful word learning from context. In addition, the experience of reward facilitated long-term memory for words. In adolescence, developmental changes are seen in reward and motivation systems as well as in reading and language systems. Here, in the face of this developmental change, we ask whether adolescents experience reward from word learning, and how the reward and memory benefit seen in adults is modulated by age. We used a naturalistic reading paradigm, which involved extracting novel word meanings from sentence context without the need for explicit feedback. By exploring ratings of enjoyment during the learning phase, as well as recognition memory for words a day later, we assessed whether adolescents show the same reward and learning patterns as adults. We tested 345 children between the ages of 10-18 (N > 84 in each 2-year age-band) using this paradigm. We found evidence for our first prediction: children aged 10-18 report greater enjoyment for successful word learning. However, we did not find evidence for age-related change in this developmental period, or memory benefits. This work gives us greater insight into the process of language acquisition and sets the stage for further investigations of intrinsic reward in typical and atypical development. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We constantly learn words from context, even in the absence of explicit rewards or feedback. In adults, intrinsic reward experienced during word learning is linked to a dopaminergic circuit in the brain, which also fuels enhancements in memory for words. We find adolescents also report enhanced reward or enjoyment when they successfully learn words from sentence context. The relationship between reward and learning is maintained between the ages of 10 and 18. Unlike in adults, we did not observe ensuing memory benefits.

Consequences of curiosity for recognition memory in younger and older adults

Older adults are more prone to false recognition than younger adults, particularly when new information is semantically related to old information. Curiosity, which guides information-seeking behavior and has beneficial effects on memory across the life span, may offer protection against false recognition, but this hypothesis has not been tested experimentally to date. The current study investigated the effect of curiosity on correct and false recognition in younger and older adults (total N = 102) using a trivia paradigm. On Day 1 of the study, participants encoded trivia questions and answers while rating their curiosity levels. On Day 2, participants completed a surprise old/new recognition test in which they saw the same trivia questions. Half of the questions were paired with old (correct) answers, and half were paired with new (incorrect) answers. New answers were either semantically related or unrelated to correct answers. For both age groups, curiosity at encoding was positively associated with correct recognition. For older adults, semantically related lures produced more false recognition than unrelated lures. However, this effect was mitigated by curiosity, such that older adults were less likely to endorse semantically related lures for high- versus low-curiosity questions. Overall, these results extend prior findings of curiosity-related memory benefits to the domain of recognition memory, and they provide novel evidence that curiosity may protect against false memory formation in older adults.

Insight in the Conspiracist's Mind

Academic AbstractThe motto of the conspiracist, "Do your own research," may seem ludicrous to scientists. Indeed, it is often dismissed as a mere rhetorical device that conspiracists use to give themselves the semblance of science. In this perspective paper, we explore the information-seeking activities ("research") that conspiracists do engage in. Drawing on the experimental psychology of aha experiences, we explain how these activities, as well as the epistemic experiences that precede (curiosity) or follow (insight or "aha" experiences) them, may play a crucial role in the appeal and development of conspiracy beliefs. Aha moments have properties that can be exploited by conspiracy theories, such as the potential for false but seemingly grounded conclusions. Finally, we hypothesize that the need for autonomous epistemic agency and discovery is universal but increases as people experience more uncertainty and/or feel epistemically excluded in society, hence linking it to existing literature on explaining conspiracy theories.

Curiosity Satisfaction Increases Event-related Potentials Sensitive to Reward

Successful learning depends on various factors such as depth of processing, motivation, or curiosity about information. A strong drive to learn something or the expectation of receiving a reward can be crucial to enhance learning. However, the influence of curiosity on the processing of new information and its similarity with reward processing is not well understood. This study examined whether states of curiosity influence specific ERPs associated with reward processing and whether these ERPs are related with later memory benefits. In an initial screening phase, participants indicated their curiosity and confidence in prior knowledge about answers to various trivia questions. In a subsequent study phase, we targeted different time windows related to reward processing during the presentation of trivia answers containing the reward positivity (RewP; 250-350 msec), the P3 (250-500 msec), and the late-positive-potential (LPP; 600-1000 msec). In a following surprise memory test, we found that participants recalled more high- than low-curiosity answers. The RewP, P3, and LPP showed greater positive mean amplitudes for high compared with low curiosity, reflecting increased reward processing. In addition, we found that the RewP and the P3 showed more positive mean amplitudes for later recalled compared with later forgotten answers, but curiosity did not modulate this encoding-related results. These findings support the view that the satisfaction of curiosity resembles reward processing, indicated by ERPs.

States of epistemic curiosity interfere with memory for incidental scholastic facts

Curiosity can be a powerful motivator to learn and retain new information. Evidence shows that high states of curiosity elicited by a specific source (i.e., a trivia question) can promote memory for incidental stimuli (non-target) presented close in time. The spreading effect of curiosity states on memory for other information has potential for educational applications. Specifically, it could provide techniques to improve learning for information that did not spark a sense of curiosity on its own. Here, we investigated how high states of curiosity induced through trivia questions affect memory performance for unrelated scholastic facts (e.g., scientific, English, or historical facts) presented in close temporal proximity to the trivia question. Across three task versions, participants viewed trivia questions closely followed in time by a scholastic fact unrelated to the trivia question, either just prior to or immediately following the answer to the trivia question. Participants then completed a surprise multiple-choice memory test (akin to a pop quiz) for the scholastic material. In all three task versions, memory performance was poorer for scholastic facts presented after trivia questions that had elicited high versus low levels of curiosity. These results contradict previous findings showing curiosity-enhanced memory for incidentally presented visual stimuli and suggest that target information that generates a high-curiosity state interferes with encoding complex and unrelated scholastic facts presented close in time.

Goal-directed learning in adolescence: neurocognitive development and contextual influences

Adolescence is a time during which we transition to independence, explore new activities and begin pursuit of major life goals. Goal-directed learning, in which we learn to perform actions that enable us to obtain desired outcomes, is central to many of these processes. Currently, our understanding of goal-directed learning in adolescence is itself in a state of transition, with the scientific community grappling with inconsistent results. When we examine metrics of goal-directed learning through the second decade of life, we find that many studies agree there are steady gains in performance in the teenage years, but others report that adolescent goal-directed learning is already adult-like, and some find adolescents can outperform adults. To explain the current variability in results, sophisticated experimental designs are being applied to test learning in different contexts. There is also increasing recognition that individuals of different ages and in different states will draw on different neurocognitive systems to support goal-directed learning. Through adoption of more nuanced approaches, we can be better prepared to recognize and harness adolescent strengths and to decipher the purpose (or goals) of adolescence itself.

Effects of memory cue and interest in remembering and forgetting of gist and details

The gist and details of an event are both important for us to establish and maintain episodic memory. On the other hand, episodic memory is influenced by both external and internal factors, such as memory cue and intrinsic motivation. To what extent these factors and their interaction modulate memory and forgetting of gist and detailed information remains unclear. In this study, 29 participants watched film clips accompanied by either gist or detailed cues and rated their interest in these clips. Their memories of gist and detailed information were tested after 10 min, 1 day, and 1 week. The results showed that memory cue modulated the forgetting of gist and detailed memories. Specifically, when gist cues were used, gist memory was forgotten more slowly than detailed memory. When detailed cues were used, detailed memory was forgotten more slowly than gist memory. Differently, the subjective interest in the clips enhanced memory accuracy irrespective of memory type but did not influence the forgetting of gist and detailed memories. Moreover, there was a significant interaction between memory cue and interest, showing that gist cues enhanced memory than detailed cues only for low-interest clips. These results suggest that external and internal factors have differential effects on memory and forgetting, and the effectiveness of external factors depends on the state of intrinsic motivation. The significant interplay of different factors in influencing the remembering or forgetting of gist and detailed memories provides potential ways to enhance memory and retention of gist and detailed information.

Smokers' Curiosity Facilitates Recall of Tobacco-Related Health Information

Curiosity promotes learning. Two open questions concern the extent to which tobacco smokers exhibit curiosity about smoking-related health information and whether this curiosity can facilitate recall of this information. Participants (n = 324 smokers; n = 280 nonsmokers) performed a Trivia Guessing Task wherein participants guessed the answers to general trivia and smoking-related trivia questions and provided ratings of their curiosity prior to viewing the answers to the questions. A subset of participants (n = 121 smokers; n = 97 nonsmokers) completed a surprise Trivia Memory Task one-week later and answered the previously-viewed questions. Results indicate that smokers are no less curious about smoking-related trivia than they are about general trivia and that curiosity about the answer to smoking-related trivia is associated with more accurate recall of smoking-related trivia answers one week later. Findings suggest that engendering states of curiosity for smoking-related information may facilitate retention of that information in smokers.

Curiosity, Surprise, and the Recall of Tobacco-Related Health Information in Adolescents

A key goal of health communications designed to prevent smoking initiation during adolescence is for the tobacco-related information to be retained in memory beyond immediate message exposure. Here, we test the role for epistemic emotions, specifically curiosity and surprise, in facilitating memory for tobacco-related health information. Participants (n = 294 never-smoking adolescents, ages 14-16 years) performed a trivia guessing task wherein they guessed the answers to general trivia and smoking-related trivia questions. A subset of participants (n = 154) completed a surprise trivia memory task one week later and answered the previously viewed questions. Results indicate that curiosity about the answers to smoking-related trivia is associated with more accurate recall of smoking-related trivia answers one week later. Surprise also facilitated memory for smoking-related trivia, but the association was limited to cases where confidence in prior knowledge was low. Indeed, when participants had high confidence in their prior knowledge, surprise about the answer to trivia questions was associated with worse recall. Findings suggest that engendering states of curiosity for smoking-related information may facilitate retention of that information in never-smoking adolescents and highlight the need to examine both surprise and confidence in health communications to avoid low message recall.

Minimally counterintuitive stimuli trigger greater curiosity than merely improbable stimuli

Curiosity plays a key role in directing learning throughout the lifespan. Prior work finds that violations of expectations can be powerful triggers of curiosity in both children and adults, but it is unclear which expectation-violating events induce the greatest curiosity and how this might vary over development. Some theories have suggested a U-shaped function such that stimuli of moderate extremity pique the greatest curiosity. However, expectation-violations vary not only in degree, but in kind: for example, some things violate an intuitive theory (e.g., an alligator that can talk) and others are merely unlikely (e.g., an alligator hiding under your bed). Combining research on curiosity with distinctions posited in the cognitive science of religion, we test whether minimally counterintuitive (MCI) stimuli, which involve one violation of an intuitive theory, are especially effective at triggering curiosity. We presented adults (N = 77) and 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 36) in the United States with stimuli that were ordinary, unlikely, MCI, and very counterintuitive (VCI) and asked which one they would like to learn more about. Adults and 5-year-olds chose Unlikely over Ordinary and MCI over Unlikely, but not VCI over MCI, more often than chance. Our results suggest that (i) minimally counterintuitive stimuli trigger greater curiosity than merely unlikely stimuli, (ii) surprisingness has diminishing returns, and (iii) sensitivity to surprisingness increases with age, appearing in our task by age 5.

Curiosity enhances incidental object encoding in 8-month-old infants

Recent research with adults indicates that curiosity induced by uncertainty enhances learning and memory outcomes and that the resolution of curiosity has a special role in curiosity-driven learning. However, the role of curiosity-based learning in early development is unclear. Here we presented 8-month-old infants with a novel looking time procedure to explore (a) whether uncertainty-induced curiosity enhances learning of incidental information and (b) whether uncertainty-induced curiosity leads infants to seek uncertainty resolution over novelty. In Experiment 1, infants saw blurred images to induce curiosity (Curiosity sequence) or a clear image (Non-curiosity sequence) followed by presentation of incidental objects. Despite looking equally to the incidental objects in both sequences, in a subsequent object recognition phase infants looked longer to incidental objects presented in the Non-curiosity condition compared with the Curiosity condition, indicating that curiosity induced by blurred pictures enhanced the processing of the incidental object, leading to a novelty preference for the incidental object shown in the Non-Curiosity condition. In Experiment 2, a blurred picture of a novel toy was first presented, followed by its corresponding clear picture paired with a clear picture of a new novel toy side by side. Infants showed no preference for either image, providing no evidence for a drive to resolve uncertainty. Overall, the current experiments suggest that curiosity has a broad attention-enhancing effect in infancy. Taking into account existing studies with older children and adults, we propose a developmental change in the function of curiosity, from this attentional enhancement to more goal-directed information seeking in older children and adults.

Learning with certainty in childhood

Learners use certainty to guide learning. They maintain existing beliefs when certain, but seek further information when they feel uninformed. Here, we review developmental evidence that this metacognitive strategy does not require reportable processing. Uncertainty prompts nonverbal human infants and nonhuman animals to engage in strategies like seeking help, searching for additional information, or opting out. Certainty directs children's attention and active learning strategies and provides a common metric for comparing and integrating conflicting beliefs across people. We conclude that certainty is a continuous, domain-general signal of belief quality even early in life.

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-enhanced memory depends on or is affected by the valence of the incidental information during curiosity states. Here, older and younger participants incidentally encoded unrelated face images (positive, negative, and neutral) while they anticipated answers to trivia questions. We found memory enhancements for answers to trivia questions and unrelated faces presented during high-curiosity compared with low-curiosity states in both younger and older adults. Interestingly, face valence did not modify memory for unrelated faces. This suggests processes associated with the elicitation of curiosity enhance memory for incidental information instead of valence.

The Kasaba Quartet: The Impact of Card Games on Knowledge and Self-Efficacy HIV/AIDS Prevention

BACKGROUND: The rate of HIV/AIDS infection is increasing every year. The highest rates of HIV infection are among adolescents aged 15–24 years. Therefore, appropriate action is needed to prevent HIV transmission through risky behavior in adolescents. AIM: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Kasaba Quartet card game on HIV/AIDS knowledge and self-efficacy in preventing HIV/AIDS-related risk behavior in adolescents. METHODS: The study used a quasi-experiment with an equivalent time-series design. The intervention in this study was a card game using the Kasaba Quartet. The card game was held 3 times with a 1-day break. Adolescents’ HIV/AIDS knowledge and self-efficacy were measured at the end of each card game. Sampling used purposive sampling with criteria including adolescents aged 12–16 years and domiciled in Bandung. A total of 30 people were involved in this study. RESULTS: After playing the Kasaba Quartet card game, the results showed that adolescents’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS in the excellent category increased significantly, with average scores from 66.04 ± 16.219 to 97.40 ± 2.776. Likewise, adolescents’ self-efficacy with the high sort was raised, from 77.83 ± 8.67 to 97.60 ± 3.45. The results of statistical tests using the Friedman test showed the significance level of 0.001 (Sig. <0.05). In other words, there was an effect of the Kasaba quartet card game on HIV knowledge and self-efficacy in preventing HIV risk behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, the Kasaba Quartet card game effectively increases knowledge of HIV/AIDS and self-efficacy in preventing risky behavior in adolescents. The study results can be used as an alternative strategy to increase knowledge and confidence in adolescents to avoid the spread of HIV/AIDS cases.

Curiosity-driven learning in adults with and without dyslexia

People are willing to spend time and money to receive information and content they are curious about, such as answers to trivia questions, suggesting they find information rewarding. In neurotypical adults, states of high curiosity satisfaction are also known to enhance the learning and memory of information encountered in that state. Here, we investigated whether the relationship between curiosity, satisfaction, and learning was altered in a group with specific learning difficulty (dyslexia). Using a willingness-to-wait paradigm, we observed that adults with and without dyslexia are willing to spend time waiting for verbal and visual information. This indicates that the same "wanting" mechanisms are seen in individuals with dyslexia for information. We then examined whether information that was desirable was also associated with enhanced memory. Our findings indicate that information does function like a reward, with the gap between expected and received information driving memory. However, this memory effect was attenuated in individuals with dyslexia. These findings point to the need to understand how reward drives learning and why this relationship might differ in dyslexia.

Developmental change in prefrontal cortex recruitment supports the emergence of value-guided memory

Prioritizing memory for valuable information can promote adaptive behavior across the lifespan, but it is unclear how the neurocognitive mechanisms that enable the selective acquisition of useful knowledge develop. Here, using a novel task coupled with functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined how children, adolescents, and adults (N = 90) learn from experience what information is likely to be rewarding, and modulate encoding and retrieval processes accordingly. We found that the ability to use learned value signals to selectively enhance memory for useful information strengthened throughout childhood and into adolescence. Encoding and retrieval of high- vs. low-value information was associated with increased activation in striatal and prefrontal regions implicated in value processing and cognitive control. Age-related increases in value-based lateral prefrontal cortex modulation mediated the relation between age and memory selectivity. Our findings demonstrate that developmental increases in the strategic engagement of the prefrontal cortex support the emergence of adaptive memory.

Curiosity in childhood and adolescence - what can we learn from the brain

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Curiosity enhances memory via the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and ventral striatum.

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Development of curiosity and its effect on memory in childhood/adolescence not well understood.

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Maturation of curiosity-promoting brain functions might contribute to increasing benefits of curiosity for learning.

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Harnessing curiosity in education might need differential approaches across child development.

Accumulating evidence in adults has shown that curiosity and surprise enhance memory via activity in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and dopaminergic areas. Based on findings of how these brain areas and their inter-connections develop during childhood and adolescence, we discuss how the effects of curiosity and surprise on memory may develop during childhood and adolescence. We predict that the maturation of brain areas potentially related to curiosity elicitation (hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC], prefrontal cortex) and protracted development of hippocampal-PFC and ACC-PFC connectivity lead to differential effects of curiosity and surprise on memory during childhood and adolescence. Our predictions are centred within the PACE (Prediction-Appraisal-Curiosity-Exploration) Framework which proposes multiple levels of analyses of how curiosity is elicited and enhances memory.

Mind the gap: How incomplete explanations influence children's interest and learning behaviors

Children rely on others' explanations to learn scientific concepts, yet sometimes the explanations they receive are incomplete. Three studies explore how receiving incomplete or complete explanations influences children's subsequent interest and engagement in learning behaviors to obtain additional information about a topic. Children ages 7-10 (N = 275; 49% female, 51% male; 55% white) viewed question-and-answer exchanges about animal behaviors that included either a complete causal explanation of the behavior or an explanation that was missing a key step. Children rated how knowledgeable they felt after hearing the explanation (Study 1) or how much information was missing from the explanation (Studies 2 and 3) and reported how interested they were in learning more about the topic. They also completed two measures of learning behaviors: a book choice task (all studies) and a card choice task (Studies 1 and 2). In the book choice task, children opted to learn about the topics of the incomplete explanations more frequently than the topics of the complete explanations. However, there was no evidence of selective learning behaviors in the card choice task and children's self-reported interest in learning more about each animal behavior was not directly related to the type of explanation they had received. Individual differences in children's interest and learning behaviors were linked to verbal intelligence and domain-specific biological knowledge. Implications for the information-gap theory of learning and children's learning in multiple contexts are discussed.

Anticipation of novel environments enhances memory for incidental information

Novelty is a potent driver of learning, but little is known about whether anticipation of novelty can enhance memory for incidental information. Here, participants incidentally encountered objects while they actively navigated toward novel or previously familiarized virtual rooms. Across immediate and delayed surprise memory tests, participants showed superior recollection for incidental objects encountered while anticipating novel as compared with familiarized rooms. Furthermore, memory for incidental objects correlated positively with between-participants average curiosity about novel rooms but negatively with within-participants trial-specific curiosity. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on how salient processes impact memory for incidental material.

How Are Curiosity and Interest Different? Naïve Bayes Classification of People’s Beliefs

Researchers studying curiosity and interest note a lack of consensus in whether and how these important motivations for learning are distinct. Empirical attempts to distinguish them are impeded by this lack of conceptual clarity. Following a recent proposal that curiosity and interest are folk concepts, we sought to determine a non-expert consensus view on their distinction using machine learning methods. In Study 1, we demonstrate that there is a consensus in how they are distinguished, by training a Naïve Bayes classification algorithm to distinguish between free-text definitions of curiosity and interest (n = 396 definitions) and using cross-validation to test the classifier on two sets of data (main n = 196; additional n = 218). In Study 2, we demonstrate that the non-expert consensus is shared by experts and can plausibly underscore future empirical work, as the classifier accurately distinguished definitions provided by experts who study curiosity and interest (n = 92). Our results suggest a shared consensus on the distinction between curiosity and interest, providing a basis for much-needed conceptual clarity facilitating future empirical work. This consensus distinguishes curiosity as more active information seeking directed towards specific and previously unknown information. In contrast, interest is more pleasurable, in-depth, less momentary information seeking towards information in domains where people already have knowledge. However, we note that there are similarities between the concepts, as they are both motivating, involve feelings of wanting, and relate to knowledge acquisition.

Library collections promotion for preadolescents using social media marketing strategies

Purpose

This study aims to explore preadolescents' opinions of the social media marketing strategies hosted by libraries to promote collections.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental Facebook page was created with posts containing interesting animations, games and book recommendations. A questionnaire survey was administered to 262 preadolescents between 11 and 13 years old to seek their opinions about the posts, and confirmatory factor analysis was used to measure their acceptance of the marketing strategies.

Findings

The authors examined the effects of five marketing strategies: word-of-mouth marketing, buzz marketing, event marketing, viral marketing and gamification marketing. In terms of sharing, word-of-mouth marketing proved the most popular, followed by buzz marketing. Participants were least accepting of viral marketing. The authors found that gamification marketing resulted in higher engagement than did event marketing. The preadolescent participants preferred engagement marketing strategies over information sharing strategies.

Originality/value

According to the uses and gratification theory, preadolescents seek, share and engage with information in ways that differ from other age groups. With specific reference to hedonic engagement by preadolescents, the authors built a two-fold model to describe the information-seeking behaviors of preadolescents from the perspective of marketing strategies. The study findings indicate that librarians who use Facebook to promote library collections should first employ gamification and word-of-mouth marketing to build trust with preadolescent users. Event and buzz marketing will then be more effective when applied within the context of this trust.

Temporal proximity to the elicitation of curiosity is key for enhancing memory for incidental information

Curiosity states benefit memory for target information, but also incidental information presented during curiosity states. However, it is not known whether incidental curiosity-enhanced memory depends on when incidental information during curiosity states is encountered. Here, participants incidentally encoded unrelated face images at different time points while they anticipated answers to trivia questions. Across two experiments, we found memory enhancements for unrelated faces presented during high-curiosity compared with low-curiosity states, but only when presented shortly after a trivia question. This suggests processes associated with the elicitation of curiosity-but not sustained anticipation or the satisfaction of curiosity-enhance memory for incidental information.