Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, UK.
Division of Human Communication, Development and Hearing, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Nov;223:105508. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105508. Epub 2022 Jul 15.
Recent research with adults indicates that curiosity induced by uncertainty enhances learning and memory outcomes and that the resolution of curiosity has a special role in curiosity-driven learning. However, the role of curiosity-based learning in early development is unclear. Here we presented 8-month-old infants with a novel looking time procedure to explore (a) whether uncertainty-induced curiosity enhances learning of incidental information and (b) whether uncertainty-induced curiosity leads infants to seek uncertainty resolution over novelty. In Experiment 1, infants saw blurred images to induce curiosity (Curiosity sequence) or a clear image (Non-curiosity sequence) followed by presentation of incidental objects. Despite looking equally to the incidental objects in both sequences, in a subsequent object recognition phase infants looked longer to incidental objects presented in the Non-curiosity condition compared with the Curiosity condition, indicating that curiosity induced by blurred pictures enhanced the processing of the incidental object, leading to a novelty preference for the incidental object shown in the Non-Curiosity condition. In Experiment 2, a blurred picture of a novel toy was first presented, followed by its corresponding clear picture paired with a clear picture of a new novel toy side by side. Infants showed no preference for either image, providing no evidence for a drive to resolve uncertainty. Overall, the current experiments suggest that curiosity has a broad attention-enhancing effect in infancy. Taking into account existing studies with older children and adults, we propose a developmental change in the function of curiosity, from this attentional enhancement to more goal-directed information seeking in older children and adults.
最近对成年人的研究表明，不确定性引起的好奇心增强了学习和记忆的效果，而好奇心的解决在好奇心驱动的学习中起着特殊的作用。然而，好奇心驱动的学习在早期发展中的作用尚不清楚。在这里，我们通过一种新的注视时间程序向 8 个月大的婴儿展示，以探索：（a）不确定性引起的好奇心是否增强了对偶然信息的学习；（b）不确定性引起的好奇心是否促使婴儿寻求不确定性的解决而不是新奇感。在实验 1 中，婴儿看到模糊的图像以引起好奇心（好奇心序列）或清晰的图像（非好奇心序列），然后呈现偶然物体。尽管在两个序列中对偶然物体的注视时间相等，但在随后的物体识别阶段，婴儿对非好奇心条件下呈现的偶然物体的注视时间比好奇心条件下长，这表明模糊图片引起的好奇心增强了对偶然物体的处理，导致对非好奇心条件下呈现的偶然物体产生新奇偏好。在实验 2 中，首先呈现一个新玩具的模糊图片，然后呈现与其对应的清晰图片，同时并排呈现一个新的清晰图片。婴儿对这两个图像都没有表现出偏好，这表明他们没有寻求解决不确定性的动机。总的来说，目前的实验表明，好奇心在婴儿期具有广泛的增强注意力的效果。考虑到现有的对年龄较大的儿童和成年人的研究，我们提出了好奇心的功能在发展过程中的变化，从这种注意力增强到年龄较大的儿童和成年人更有针对性的信息寻求。
