A study published in the journal Neuronstates that curiosity is beneficial for learning According to this research, people find it easier to memorize and retain information about topics that interest them, because this state of intrinsic motivation increases the activity of the midbrain, the nucleus accumbens and the hippocampus (brain areas related to learning, memory and repetition of pleasurable behaviors).
Although many of us have already experienced it, these findings could help scientists find new ways to improve learning and memory, and could provide new educational strategies for teachers.
The relationship between curiosity and learning is not new
That we learn faster about those topics that arouse our interest and curiosity is not new. Surely, when a person says “that he doesn’t like or is not curious about what he studies”, he will have difficulties in carrying out good learning. In fact, we learn much better through meaningful learning. But this research provides information about How curiosity is related to brain function and how intrinsic motivation affects learning.
Matthias Gruber and his collaborators carried out the research at the University of California and found that when we are curious about something, our mind not only absorbs what interests us, but also We also memorize the data surrounding the subject of our interest, and that at first is unrelated to the object of curiosity. On the other hand, the researchers also concluded that the hippocampus, which helps in memory formation, is more activated when we show more interest.
Nucleus accumbens: motivation, pleasure and learning
An area of the brain involved with motivation and repetition of pleasurable behaviors is the nucleus accumbens (which is part of the reward system). This is located in both hemispheres, and receives input from several brain centers related to the emotions (amygdala and hypothalamus) and the memory (emotional, procedural and declarative). In addition, it receives dopaminergic afferents from the ventral tegmental area and motor areas of the cortex. The presence of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens facilitates long-term memory and learning.
But the nucleus accumbens is also related to motivation, and Curiosity causes the activation of the reward circuit (of which the nucleus accumbens is a part). Guber says, “We have shown that intrinsic motivation actually recruits the same areas of the brain that are strongly involved in tangible extrinsic motivation.”
On the other hand, as other research had concluded in the past, to activate the nucleus accumbens It is necessary that the event be new and unexpected (that does not match the information we have stored in memory). After this research, it seems that curiosity, which can be understood as the search for novelty or the desire to know or find out something, also activates it.
Study data and conclusions
To carry out the study, 19 students were recruited to rate more than 100 trivia questions, indicating their degree of curiosity (from 0 to 6) and their perception of self-confidence in answering them correctly.
Then the scientists They measured the brain activity of each subject using an imaging technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Meanwhile, on a screen, each participant was shown the questions they had rated as curious or not curious, and each question took 14 seconds to appear. In this time interval, images of faces appeared with a facial expression that had nothing to do with the questions.
Later the students answered these questions and, in addition, they were given a surprise test in which they had to remember the faces. The results indicated that theThe subjects remembered the faces in 71% of the cases in which they had rated the question as curious. On the contrary, in the questions that had been classified as not curious, they only remembered 54% of the faces Something that didn’t surprise anyone.
But what did surprise the researchers is that when analyzing the face recognition test, the more curious the participants had evaluated a photo (from 0 to 6), the more faces they remembered. Furthermore, even though the faces were unrelated to the questions, they memorized them even 24 hours later.
summarizing
In summary, after the study, the researchers stated that:
