The Effects of Curiosity on Learning and Memory among Younger and Older Adults

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Curiosity is at the heart of human discovery. Although the importance of curiosity in guiding learning is intuitively understood, there is little scientific understanding of the role that it plays in promoting memory. Much of the existing research has focused on how curiosity potentiates exploration in childhood and among non-human animals, highlighting its evolutionary value as a motivational drive to improve cognition. Yet, there is a paucity of information on how curiosity is leveraged in service of learning in older adulthood. This critical gap in our knowledge points to limitations in existing models on the interplay between motivation and cognition across the lifespan. Over the next five years, I will build on my experience in the study of age-related changes in learning and memory to resolve this gap. By leveraging recent neurobiological accounts of curiosity-based learning, I predict that older adults will display a weaker relationship between curiosity and memory. Specifically, I will examine age differences in curiosity as a function of whether it serves to: (1) learn information that is temporarily perplexing (perceptual curiosity), or (2) learn information that you want to know (epistemic curiosity). I will also explore whether kindling curiosity can help minimize age difference in memory (3). I will use behavioural paradigms to induce curiosity during learning, and examine its relationship to later recall of images, words, and facts. ******In pursuing this research, I will contribute to the theoretical enrichment of curiosity and the development of methodologies that can be used to assess it objectively. This research would also represent the first systematic examination of curiosity in normal aging, an important undertaking given that recent evidence shows curiosity-based learning to hinge on brain areas known to be compromised by aging. More broadly, this work will help us understand a critical motivation that we take for granted due to its ubiquity in everyday life. The proposed program of research will also allow me to kick-start an active memory and aging lab that will attract budding national and international scientists looking to train in either official language, reaffirming Canada as a site for innovative cognitive research.***********