While increasing curiosity reduces uncertainty and makes for better choices on what to explore, the animals' brains are also wired to reward us for learning new information, which can put us at different risks. It's agreed that information allows for better choices, but curiosity can lead animals to pursue stimuli that aren't necessarily useful. A popular notion in education literature is that the function of curiosity is to facilitate learning and thus success increases with the degree of one's curiosity. One question still up for debate is whether curiosity always carries benefits-whether immediately or in the future. But by looking at it from an evolutionary perspective-the benefits of information-seeking in general-scientists can make rapid progress but by sitting around and arguing about what is and is not curiosity, progress will be much slower." "This definition, and the idea that roundworms may be curious, will be hard for some people to swallow. "When the information-seeking becomes active, it's reasonable to start talking about it as a minimal form of curiosity," Hayden says. For their Review, the authors used a working definition of curiosity "as a drive state for information," which can be observed in organisms as simple as nematode worms.
Over time, studies have tried to differentiate curiosity by saying it is entirely intrinsically motivated (compared to information-seeking and risk-seeking), but this type of definition runs into problems when determining the intrinsic motivation of babies, primates, and other organisms that cannot communicate their inner world. Animal curiosity also became a fascination for well-known researchers like Ivan Pavlov and Harry Harlow, who saw this "What-is-it?" reflex as a basic drive. In humans, psychologists used biographies from mothers to study how children were drawn toward new objects or experiences. Scientists have been taking notes about curiosity since the 19th century. "We have to be comfortable with that kind of basic uncertainty." "Fighting over the proper definition is a big part of figuring out how they work," says co-author Celeste Kidd of the Rochester Baby Lab and Rochester Kid Lab.
It's not uncommon for neuroscientists to study something (e.g., attention, reward, self-control, etc.) for which there is no agreed upon definition. There are several people, working in several different disciplines, who may not be aware of each other's work, but who should be". "But we felt that the field has recently managed to develop new formal and quantifiable techniques for studying curiosity and that it's worth getting the word out. "Curiosity is a long-standing problem that is fascinating but has been difficult to approach scientifically," says co-author Benjamin Hayden, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences. They propose that it's time for researchers to organize and focus on curiosity's function, evolution, mechanism, and development. No more, argue two University of Rochester researchers in a review of curiosity science published November 4 in Neuron. But ask a group of scientists to define curiosity and you'll get a rousing debate, and a lot of unanswered questions about its biology. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes called it "the lust of the mind." Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt said it was "the most useful gift." And, yes, we all know what killed the cat.
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