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

好奇心对年轻人和老年人学习和记忆的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06296
• 负责人: Cyr, AndréeAnn
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: York University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=764188
• 关键词: Effects; Curiosity; Learning; Memory; among

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.

好奇心是人类发现的核心。尽管人们直观地理解好奇心在指导学习中的重要性，但对其在促进记忆方面所发挥的作用却缺乏科学的理解。现有的大部分研究都集中在好奇心如何增强童年和非人类动物的探索，强调好奇心作为改善认知的动力的进化价值。然而，关于如何利用好奇心为老年人的学习服务的信息却很少。我们知识中的这一关键差距表明了现有模型在整个生命周期中动机和认知之间相互作用的局限性。在接下来的五年里，我将利用我在学习和记忆中与年龄相关的变化的研究经验来解决这一差距。通过利用最近基于好奇心的学习的神经生物学描述，我预测老年人的好奇心和记忆之间的关系会较弱。具体来说，我将研究好奇心的年龄差异，看看它是否有助于：（1）学习暂时令人困惑的信息（感知好奇心），或（2）学习你想知道的信息（认知好奇心）。我还将探讨激发好奇心是否有助于最小化记忆中的年龄差异（3）。我将使用行为范式在学习过程中引发好奇心，并研究其与以后回忆图像、单词和事实的关系。 在进行这项研究的过程中，我将致力于丰富好奇心的理论和开发可用于客观评估好奇心的方法。这项研究也代表了对正常衰老过程中好奇心的首次系统检查，这是一项重要的工作，因为最近的证据表明基于好奇心的学习取决于已知会因衰老而受损的大脑区域。更广泛地说，这项工作将帮助我们理解一种关键动机，由于它在日常生活中无处不在，我们认为这是理所当然的。拟议的研究计划还将允许我启动一个主动记忆和衰老实验室，该实验室将吸引希望以任一官方语言进行培训的新兴国家和国际科学家，重申加拿大作为创新认知研究的场所。