Hitting the Curiosity Sweet Spot Speeds Up Learning

The world is full of things to learn. Where to start? How to choose what to pay attention to? What motivates someone to seek new knowledge?

We’re often curious in a particular way: we want to learn more about things we already know a little bit about. “You can think of curiosity as the process that guides the acquisition of knowledge,” says neuroscientist Celeste Kidd of the University of California, Berkeley. We internally track how well we are learning, or our learning progress, and learning comes more easily and is more enjoyable when curiosity is high. Following our instincts appears to be a particularly rewarding way to explore the world. “If you feel positive after learning something, then you now understand the joy of learning, which motivates you to learn next time,” says educational psychologist Kou Murayama of the University of Tübingen in Germany.

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): Scientific American