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Published August 2009 | Supplemental Material + Submitted
Journal Article Open

The Wick in the Candle of Learning: Epistemic Curiosity Activates Reward Circuitry and Enhances Memory

Abstract

Curiosity has been described as a desire for learning and knowledge, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We scanned subjects with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they read trivia questions. The level of curiosity when reading questions was correlated with activity in caudate regions previously suggested to be involved in anticipated reward. This finding led to a behavioral study, which showed that subjects spent more scarce resources (either limited tokens or waiting time) to find out answers when they were more curious. The functional imaging also showed that curiosity increased activity in memory areas when subjects guessed incorrectly, which suggests that curiosity may enhance memory for surprising new information. This prediction about memory enhancement was confirmed in a behavioral study: Higher curiosity in an initial session was correlated with better recall of surprising answers 1 to 2 weeks later.

Additional Information

© 2009 Association for Psychological Science. Received 6/26/08; Revision Accepted 12/6/08. This research was supported by Moore and Human Frontiers of Science Program grants (C.F.C.). We thank Meghana Bhatt, Jonathan Cohen, Liqing Zhang, Galen Loram, Carmina Caringal, Noah Myung, Daniel Holland, the John O'Doherty lab, the Caltech Magnetic Resonance users group, and the audiences at Economic Science Association and Functional Imaging Laboratory meetings for help and comments.

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Submitted - ssrn-id1308286_1_.pdf

Supplemental Material - 20_8_963_1.pdf

Supplemental Material - 20_8_963_2.pdf

Supplemental Material - 20_8_963_3.pdf

Supplemental Material - 20_8_963_4.pdf

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