Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China,
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA,
Gerontology. 2022;68(3):321-329. doi: 10.1159/000516296. Epub 2021 Jun 1.
Curiosity, or the desire for novel information and/or experience, is associated with improved well-being and more informed decisions, which has implications on older adults' (OAs') adoption of novel technologies. There have been suggestions that curiosity tends to decline with age. However, it was rarely studied under specific contexts, and there were relatively limited attempts to enhance OAs' curiosity. Under the theoretical framework of selective engagement theory, we examined age differences of curiosity in the context of learning a novel technology and investigated the moderating role of personal relevance.
This study utilized a pretest-posttest experimental design with a total of 50 younger adults (YAs) and 50 OAs from Hong Kong to measure their trait curiosity, perceived personal relevance, and state curiosity toward robots after interacting with a robot.
OAs showed significantly lower trait curiosity than YAs, but OAs showed a higher level of state curiosity toward a robot than YAs when they perceived an increase in personal relevance after interacting with the robot.
Findings replicated previous findings that trait curiosity declined with age, but they also illustrated the distinctions between trait and state curiosity in the context of aging and highlighted the potential role of personal relevance in enhancing curiosity of OAs.
好奇心，即对新奇信息和/或体验的渴望，与改善幸福感和做出更明智的决策有关，这对老年人采用新技术具有影响。有人认为好奇心会随着年龄的增长而下降。然而，这种说法很少在特定背景下进行研究，也很少有尝试去增强老年人的好奇心。在选择性参与理论的理论框架下，我们考察了学习新技术背景下好奇心的年龄差异，并研究了个人相关性的调节作用。
本研究采用预测试后测试的实验设计，共有来自香港的 50 名年轻人（YAs）和 50 名老年人（OAs）参与，在与机器人互动后，测量他们的特质好奇心、感知到的个人相关性和对机器人的状态好奇心。
OAs 的特质好奇心明显低于 YAs，但当他们在与机器人互动后感知到个人相关性增加时，对机器人的状态好奇心高于 YAs。
研究结果复制了先前的发现，即特质好奇心随着年龄的增长而下降，但也说明了特质和状态好奇心在老龄化背景下的区别，并强调了个人相关性在增强老年人好奇心方面的潜在作用。
