About This Project

Curiosity plays a critical role in our daily behaviors and interactions. It drives learning and promotes discovery, increasing our understanding of the world. Yet for something so important, very little is known about its psychological and neural underpinnings. This study aims to investigate if frontal cortical EEG asymmetry (known to influence reward-motivated behavior) is a predictor of curiosity, and if it exerts any effects on subsequent learning.

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What is the context of this research?

Curiosity plays a critical role in many of our daily pursuits, actions, and interactions. It drives learning and promotes discovery, increasing our understanding of the world. Albert Einstein, for instance, once said, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious". Yet for something that drives much of our behavior and knowledge, very little is known about its psychological and neural underpinnings. Lowenstein (1994) proposed the theory in which curiosity arises from a perceived information gap, that is, the disparity between what one knows and what one wants to know. This approach suggests a subjective value that curiosity seeks: information. Our study aims to use this framework to investigate its neural underpinnings of its effects on learning.

What is the significance of this project?

This study is of great importance in many fields, including Neuroscience, Psychology, Education, Marketing and any other fields that study reward-motivated behavior. It might potentially influence future research on curiosity and reshape educational practices that make students more engaged inside and outside the classroom.

What are the goals of the project?

We aim to investigate if frontal EEG alpha left asymmetry is (1) in any way related to self-reported curiosity and (2) a better predictor of subsequent learning. We will provide participants with trivia questions (eg. What is the capital of Brazil?) while recording EEG data. After each question we will ask the participants if they know the answer, and if not, how curious they are to learn it. We will then correlate the self-report results with the FBA data. One day later, they will come back and try to answer the same questions.

By doing this, we are aiming to investigate if higher-levels of curiosity have a stronger effect on future memory recall.