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The Wick in the Candle of Learning: Epistemic Curiosity Activates Reward Circuitry and Enhances Memory
Abstract
Curiosity has been described as a desire for learning and knowledge, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We scanned subjects with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they read trivia questions. The level of curiosity when reading questions was correlated with activity in caudate regions previously suggested to be involved in anticipated reward. This finding led to a behavioral study, which showed that subjects spent more scarce resources (either limited tokens or waiting time) to find out answers when they were more curious. The functional imaging also showed that curiosity increased activity in memory areas when subjects guessed incorrectly, which suggests that curiosity may enhance memory for surprising new information. This prediction about memory enhancement was confirmed in a behavioral study: Higher curiosity in an initial session was correlated with better recall of surprising answers 1 to 2 weeks later.
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“M. J. Kang, Hsu, Krajbich, Loewenstein, McClure, Wang, and Camerer (2009) found that the higher participants rated their curiosity about a question answered incorrectly, the more likely they were to recall the correct answer on a surprise test two weeks later.”
From The benefit of generating errors during learning (2014) · cites this paper as M. J. Kang, Hsu, Krajbich, Loewenstein, McClure, Wang, and Camerer (2009)
In the citing paper
“Curiosity has been shown to follow an inverted-U-shaped function of confidence in the prediction (e.g., Kang et al., 2009).”
From Predicting as a learning strategy (2021) · cites this paper as Kang et al., 2009
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InfluentialSelf-citationAnticipation of Increasing Monetary Reward Selectively Recruits Nucleus Accumbens
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Items 301–400 of 881
Barbieri, P., Sarasso, P., Lodico, F., Aliverti, A., Murayama, K., Sacco, K., & Ronga, I. (2023) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2022.0413 · Cited by 18
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“Indeed, humans (and many other animals; Box 2) can be curious about information even when it is seemingly irrelevant to functional ends [64,65] and even when it is costly to accrue (e.g., when accompanied by an electric shock [66]).”
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“report measures to assess both surprise and curiosity, which have, as of yet, only been conducted separately (Brod & Breitwieser, 2019; Kang et al., 2009; Reisenzein et al., 2006).”
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Self-citationLitman, J. A. (2012) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1645 · Cited by 18
How does incidental curiosity affect consumers’ unhealthy eating?
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The neuroeconomics of epistemic curiosity
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Self-citationNagy, P., Mawasi, A., Eustice, K., Cook‐Davis, A., Finn, E., & Wylie, R. (2022) · British Journal of Educational Technology · doi:10.1111/bjet.13202 · Cited by 17
McNeely-White, K. L., & Cleary, A. M. (2023) · Journal of Intelligence · doi:10.3390/jintelligence11060112 · Cited by 21
How does CEO curiosity affect firm innovation?
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Neuroscientism, the neuroscience of learning
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Teaching Inquiry With a Lens Toward Curiosity
von Renesse, C., & Ecke, V. (2016) · PRIMUS · doi:10.1080/10511970.2016.1176973 · Cited by 17
“But, what is curiosity and how do students become more curious? The debate about curiosity – its definition, how it gets activated and what exactly it does – seems to be ongoing in psychology (see, for example, [3], [5], [8], [10], [12]).”
BackgroundMetacognitive Computations for Information Search: Confidence in ControlPreprint
Schulz, L., Fleming, S. M., & Dayan, P. (2021) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2021.03.01.433342 · Cited by 18
“…relationship between confidence and curiosity similar to our instrumental results (Berlyne, 1950; Lehman & Stanley, 2011), others argue that intermediate levels of confidence are most conducive to curiosity (Baranes, Oudeyer, & Gottlieb, 2014; Kang et al., 2009; Kidd, Piantadosi, & Aslin, 2012).”
On clickbaits and evolution: curiosity from urge and interest
Dan, O., Leshkowitz, M., & Hassin, R. R. (2020) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.09.009 · Cited by 16
Tulgar, A. T. (2018) · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Cited by 16
Hutchinson, R. S., & Eardley, A. F. (2023) · Museum Management and Curatorship · doi:10.1080/09647775.2023.2188482 · Cited by 20
“Such techniques may increase emotional engagement, interest and curiosity, which are known to enhance memorability (Kang et al. 2009; Renninger and Hidi 2015).”
When less is more: coy display behaviours and the temporal dynamics of animal courtship
MacGillavry, T., Spezie, G., & Fusani, L. (2023) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.1684 · Cited by 15
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“For instance, Kang et al. (2009) found that question interventions had a positive effect on the subsequent recall of information relevant to the questions.”
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Ye, J., Hong, J., & Fan, J.-Y. (2019) · Eurasia Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education · doi:10.29333/ejmste/108455 · Cited by 23
“That is, the role of epistemic curiosity might function as a mediator because previous research has suggested that individual traits are strong predictors of epistemic curiosity (Fleischhauer et al., 2010), which in turn ensures better learning (Kang et al., 2009; Mussel, 2013).”
BackgroundResultAssociation between Behavioral Ambidexterity and Brain Health
Kokubun, K., Yamakawa, Y., & Hiraki, K. (2020) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci10030137 · Cited by 16
“In support, in the field of neuroscience, it has been demonstrated that curiosity is associated with activity in the hippocampus, brain circuit, the lateral prefrontal cortex, and the caudate, which are recognized as areas partly responsible for creating memories or related to reward and pleasure [46,47].”
BackgroundHuang, Q., Cao, S., Zhou, S., Punia, D., Zhu, X., Luo, Y., & Wu, H. (2021) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.110973 · Cited by 17
“Trivia questions task Following previous studies that using trivia questions to induce epistemic curiosity (Kang et al., 2009; Ligneul, Mermillod, & Morisseau, 2018; Liquin & Lombrozo, 2020; Marvin & Shohamy, 2016), we used the trivia questions adapted from Liquin and Lombrozo (2020).”
Generated questions learning model (GQLM): Beyond learning styles
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“Loewenstein (1994) says that a small amount of information serves as a priming dose that greatly increases curiosity, which is verified in a study by Kang et al. (2009) showing that curiosity enhances learning; this is consistent with the theory that the primary function of curiosity is to…”
BackgroundA Convolutional Neural Network for Clickbait Detection
Fu, J., Liang, L., Zhou, X., & Zheng, J. (2017) · International Conference on Information Science and Control Engineering · doi:10.1109/icisce.2017.11 · Cited by 17
“From the prospective of Loewensteinś information gap theory of curiosity [6], click-baits arouse the curiosity of readers by creating a cognitive gap between what they already know and what they want to know.”
BackgroundCuriosity-driven learning in adults with and without dyslexia
Garvin, B., & Krishnan, S. (2021) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/17470218211037474 · Cited by 15
“Another approach may be to use neuroimaging methods to study the key regions implicated in epistemic curiosity in dyslexia (Gruber et al., 2014; Kang et al., 2009; Lau et al., 2020; Valji et al., 2019), focusing particularly on structural and functional connectivity in the mesolimbic dopaminergic…”
InfluentialUnderstanding sensory regulation in typical and atypical development: The case of sensory seeking
Piccardi, E. S., & Gliga, T. (2022) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2022.101037 · Cited by 19
de Kluis, T., Romp, S., & Land‐Zandstra, A. M. (2023) · Public Understanding of Science · doi:10.1177/09636625231202617 · Cited by 15
“As curiosity is associated with better learning outcomes (Kang et al., 2008; Loewenstein, 1994), the use of objects may increase learning as well.”
Using curiosity to counter health information avoidance
Horn, S., Litovsky, Y., & Loewenstein, G. F. (2023) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116383 · Cited by 15
“There is also evidence that stimulating curiosity for information by guessing it before it is learned improves recall of the information (Berlyne, 1954; Brod et al., 2018; Kang et al., 2009; Potts et al., 2019).”
InfluentialSelf-citationQiu, J., & Golman, R. (2024) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.4195 · Cited by 15
Cohanpour, M., Aly, M., & Gottlieb, J. P. (2024) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0974-23.2024 · Cited by 19
A cross-cultural comparison of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational drives for learning
Zhang, Z., van Lieshout, L. L. F., Colizoli, O., Li, H., Yang, T., Liu, C., Qin, S., & Harold Bekkering, A. (2024) · Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-024-01228-2 · Cited by 25
“…motivation, in contrast, refers to the internal desire and enjoyment derived from engaging in an activity (Ryan & Deci, 2000), and can also enhance learning performance (Duan et al., 2020; Gruber et al., 2014; Gruber & Ranganath, 2019; Jepma et al., 2012; Kang et al., 2009; Ripolles et al., 2016).”
Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Models, and Applications
Kirmayer, L. J., Worthman, C. M., Kitayama, S., Lemelson, R., & Cummings, C. A. (2020) · Cited by 15
The Motivational Processes of Sense-Making
Wojtowicz, Z., Nick Chater, A., & Loewenstein, G. F. (2021) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009026949.002 · Cited by 15
Self-citationRamík, D. M., Sabourin, C., & Madani, K. (2013) · Robotics and Autonomous Systems · doi:10.1016/j.robot.2013.06.005 · Cited by 15
“It also seems that it acts to stimulate long-termmemory in remembering new or surprising information [25].”
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Curiosity shapes spatial exploration and cognitive map formation in humans
Cen, D., Teichert, E., Hodgetts, C. J., & Gruber, M. J. (2024) · Communications Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44271-024-00174-6 · Cited by 19
Sharma, S. S., Bharath, M. M. S., Yoganarasimha, D., & Laxmi, T. R. (2022) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-022-06319-5 · Cited by 14
“This is in accordance with the response to trivia questions in human subjects wherein the study showed an inverted bell-shaped curve to curiosity-driven task and connected striatal activation with curiosity-driven anticipation (Kang et al. 2009).”
Minimally counterintuitive stimuli trigger greater curiosity than merely improbable stimuli
Lewry, C., Gorucu, S., Liquin, E. G., & Lombrozo, T. (2022) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105286 · Cited by 14
How to utilize the information gap for blind box marketing better: evidence from plane tickets
Qiu, Z., Chen, S., Law, R., & Zhang, M. (2024) · Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research · doi:10.1080/10941665.2024.2350405 · Cited by 14
“At the same time, curiosity is a highly activated and positive state that drives individuals to narrow the information gap (Silvia, 2012; Van Lieshout et al., 2020), which manifests itself most directly in the consumer environment in the form of purchasing behavior (Kang et al., 2009).”
The Curious U : Integrating Theories Linking Knowledge and Information-Seeking Behavior
Ten, A., Oudeyer, P., Sakaki, M., & Murayama, K. (2025) · Open Mind · doi:10.1162/opmi.a.41 · Cited by 14
“For instance, when reading general knowledge questions, curiosity peaks when the confidence in knowing the answer is intermediate (Baranes et al., 2015; Dubey & Griffiths, 2020; Kang et al., 2009; Litman et al., 2005; Lyew et al., 2023; Spitzer et al., 2024).”
Anxiety and Enjoyment in the Foreign Language Classroom
Mierzwa-Kamińska, E. (2019) · East-West Cultural Passage · doi:10.2478/ewcp-2019-0007 · Cited by 17
The growth and form of knowledge networks by kinesthetic curiosity
Zhou, D., Lydon‐Staley, D. M., Zurn, P., & Bassett, D. S. (2020) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.09.007 · Cited by 20
People are curious about immoral and morally ambiguous others
Wylie, J., & Gantman, A. P. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-30312-9 · Cited by 15
Decisions from Experience: Adaptive Information Search and Choice in Younger and Older Adults
Spaniol, J., & Wegier, P. (2012) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2012.00036 · Cited by 15
“At the subjective level, the increased sampling when the desirable outcome is rare (p = 0.10 or 0.20) may be associated with increased curiosity (i.e., anticipation of epistemic reward; e.g., Kang et al., 2009).”
InfluentialIndividual Differences in Human-Agent Teaming
Wright, J. L., Quinn, S. A., Chen, J. Y. C., & Barnes, M. J. (2014) · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · doi:10.1177/1541931214581294 · Cited by 15
“Increased pupil diameter has been found to occur in tasks requiring high mental workload (Van Orden et al., 2000; Van Orden, Limbert, Makeig, & Jung, 2001; Iqbal, Zheng, & Bailey, 2004) as well as situations of increased interest (Kang et al., 2009).”
Curiosity across the adult lifespan: Age-related differences in state and trait curiosity
Whatley, M. C., Murayama, K., Sakaki, M., & Castel, A. D. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0320600 · Cited by 15
“This state curiosity measure has been used in most of the experimental studies on curiosity using trivia questions and has shown relations with theoretically predicted variables (behaviors, other self-reported measures, neural activations; e.g., [13,51–53]).”
Curiosity makes your mind wander: Effects of epistemic curiosity and trait anxiety on mind wandering
Sekiguchi, T. (2022) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2022.112069 · Cited by 13
Exploring the predictiveness of curiosity and interest in science learning in and after class
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Distractibility and Impulsivity in ADHD as an Evolutionary Mismatch of High Trait Curiosity
Cunff, A. L. (2024) · Evolutionary Psychological Science · doi:10.1007/s40806-024-00400-8 · Cited by 20
“This view is supported by neuroimaging studies showing that curiosity enhances activity in brain regions associated with attention and learning, such as the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus (Gruber et al., 2014; Kang et al., 2009).”
To know or not to know? Curiosity and the value of prospective information in animals
Ajuwon, V., Monteiro, T., Schnell, A. K., & Clayton, N. S. (2024) · Learning & Behavior · doi:10.3758/s13420-024-00647-y · Cited by 14
“This is consistent with the finding that the people are better able to remember the answers to questions that piqued their curiosity (e.g., Gruber et al., 2014; Kang et al., 2009).”
Chen, X., Lake, J., & Padilla, A. M. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02176 · Cited by 16
Macaques preferentially attend to intermediately surprising information
Wu, S., Blanchard, T. C., Meschke, E. X., Aslin, R. Ν., Hayden, B. Y., & Kidd, C. (2022) · Biology Letters · doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0144 · Cited by 14
Curiosity Emerging From the Perception of Change in Music
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“There has been considerable growth in the number of studies examining curiosity in the lab (Kang et al., 2009; Gruber et al., 2014; Jepma et al., 2012; Van de Cruys et al., 2021; van Lieshout, Vandenbroucke, Müller, Cools, & de Lange, 2018; Charpentier, Bromberg-Martin, & Sharot, 2018; Kobayashi &…”
BackgroundAge Differences in Motivated Cognition: A Meta-Analysis
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Motivating managers to develop their moral curiosity
Sekerka, L. E., Godwin, L. N., & Charnigo, R. J. (2014) · Journal of Management Development · doi:10.1108/jmd-03-2013-0039 · Cited by 13
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Curiosity in Online Video Concept Learning and Short-Term Outcomes in Blended Medical Education
Ho, C., Yeh, C., Wang, J., Hu, R., & Lee, P. (2021) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.772956 · Cited by 13
“Loewenstein et al. (24) found that epistemic curiosity was greatest when participants had partial knowledge of a particular subject rather than no knowledge or full knowledge, a finding supported by Litman et al. (25) and Kang et al. (26).”
Self-citationWhite matter pathways supporting individual differences in epistemic and perceptual curiosityPreprint
Valji, A., Priemysheva, A., Hodgetts, C. J., Costigan, A. G., Parker, G. D., Graham, K. S., Lawrence, A. D., & Gruber, M. J. (2019) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/642165 · Cited by 13
“Furthermore, recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that state curiosity enhances memory via increased activation in the mesolimbic dopaminergic circuit including the hippocampus (Gruber et al., 2014; Kang et al., 2009).”
BackgroundResultChildren’s automatic evaluation of self‐generated actions is different from adults
Denervaud, S., Hess, A., Sander, D., & Pourtois, G. (2021) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/desc.13045 · Cited by 11
“Therefore, the specific pedagogy experienced by children in school is an important determinant of how exploration and learning develop as well as manifest (Kang et al., 2009; Kaplan & Patrick, 2016; Oudeyer”
BackgroundThe Brain Circuits and Dynamics of Curiosity-Driven Behavior in Naturally Curious Marmosets
Tian, X., Silva, A. C., & Liu, C. (2021) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhab080 · Cited by 12
“Curiosity is also linked with the emotional state (Loewenstein 1994; Kang et al. 2009).”
BackgroundCuriosity Killed the Cat but Not Memory: Enhanced Performance in High-Curiosity States
Padulo, C., Marascia, E., Conte, N., Passarello, N., Mandolesi, L., & Fairfield, B. (2022) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci12070846 · Cited by 12
Curiosity: A conceptual re-analysis for improved measurement
McNary, L. (2023) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-022-04170-z · Cited by 16
“Their theory posits that the two different types of exploratory behavior—specific and diversive—can be explained by the curiosity drive and theory by Loewenstein and colleagues studied the theory’s neural underpinnings of epistemic curiosity (Kang et al., 2009).”
Exploring Curiosity in Games: A Framework and Questionnaire Study of Player Perspectives
Tang, Z., & Kirman, B. J. (2024) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2024.2325171 · Cited by 12
“Epistemic curiosity is characterised by the desire for deep knowledge acquisition and active pursuit for information (Kang et al., 2009), encompassing the inherent urge to understand the mechanism of how things operate (Litman, 2010).”
Meliß, S., Tsuchiyagaito, A., Byrne, P., van Reekum, C. M., & Murayama, K. (2024) · Imaging Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/imag_a_00134 · Cited by 15
“…2012; Ligneul et al., 2018; Murphy, Dehmelt, et al., 2021; Poh et al., 2021; Mullaney et al., 2014; Stare et al., 2018) and long ( Fastrich et al., 2018; Gruber et al., 2014; Kang et al., 2009; Marvin & Shohamy, 2016; Murayama & Kuhbandner, 2011; Stare et al., 2018; Swirsky et al., 2021) intervals.”
InfluentialSakaki, M., Ten, A., Stone, H., & Murayama, K. (2024) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/cogs.13474 · Cited by 14
Wanting information: Uncertainty and its reduction through search engagement
van der Sluis, F. (2024) · Information Processing & Management · doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2024.103890 · Cited by 12
Boredom and curiosity: the hunger and the appetite for information
Seiler, J. P.-H., & Dan, O. (2024) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1514348 · Cited by 14
Zhang, N., Yan, Y., & Suzuki, R. (2025) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3706598.3713293 · Cited by 16
Influence of Epistemic Curiosity on the Study Approaches of First Year Engineering Students
Binu, K. G., Vijay, V. S., Anusha, M. M., Anoop, C. V., Bhat, S., & D’Souza, R. G. L. (2020) · Procedia Computer Science · doi:10.1016/j.procs.2020.05.097 · Cited by 12
Why so curious? Validation and cross‐cultural investigation of the Hindi Epistemic Curiosity Scale
Karandikar, S., Kapoor, H., & Litman, J. A. (2020) · Asian Journal Of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/ajsp.12425 · Cited by 12
Morard, S., Sanchez, É., & Bonnat, C. (2023) · International Journal of Serious Games · doi:10.17083/ijsg.v10i4.695 · Cited by 12
“This pursuit is crucial for mastering complex skills [23,24] and students with heightened epistemic curiosity are often driven by complexity, fueling their learning engagement [21,25].”
van Allen, Z., & Zelenski, J. M. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01964 · Cited by 13
Mosaly, P. R., Guo, H., & Mazur, L. M. (2019) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2019.1575081 · Cited by 11
“Increased pupil diameter (or TEPR) has been found to occur in tasks requiring high mental work-load (Iqbal, Zheng, & Bailey, 2004; Van Orden, Jung, & Makeig, 2000; Van Orden, Limbert, Makeig, & Jung, 2001) as well as situations of increased interest (Kang et al., 2009).”
BackgroundThe influence of alcohol and weapon presence on eyewitness memory and confidence
Harvey, A. J., Shrimpton, B., Azzopardi, Z., O'Grady, K., Hicks, E., Hirst, E., & Atkinson‐Cox, K. (2020) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.3636 · Cited by 12
“As high curiosity encoding states are known to enhance memory (Gruber, Gelman, & Ranganath, 2014; Kang et al., 2009; Marvin & Shohamy, 2016) it is conceivable This article is protected by copyright.”
BackgroundCuriosity and Its Implications for Consumer Behavior
Hsee, C. K., & Ruan, B. (2020) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/s1548-643520200000017017 · Cited by 14
Ryan, R. M., & Domenico, S. D. (2016) · Advances in motivation and achievement · doi:10.1108/s0749-742320160000019009 · Cited by 12
Bazhydai, M., Twomey, K. E., & Westermann, G. (2017) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-809324-5.05804-1 · Cited by 11
Chen, A. S.-Y., Bian, M.-D., Nguyen, T. K., & Chang, C.-H. (2022) · European Journal of Innovation Management · doi:10.1108/ejim-01-2022-0055 · Cited by 11
Survival in a world of complex dangers
Mobbs, D., Wise, T., Tashjian, S. M., Zhang, J., Friston, K. J., & Headley, D. B. (2024) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105924 · Cited by 13
In the hands of the beholder: Wearing a COVID-19 mask is associated with its attractiveness
Dudarev, V., Manaligod, M. G. M., Enns, J. T., & Todd, R. M. (2021) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/17470218211037128 · Cited by 11
Frontal asymmetry predicts the incentive value of perceptual information
Käckenmester, W., Kroencke, L., & Wacker, J. (2018) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.10.002 · Cited by 11
Using Technology to Foster Creative and Critical Thinking in the Classroom
Bloom, L. A., & Doss, K. K. (2020) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-3022-1.ch028 · Cited by 11
Memory’s reflection of learned information value increases across development.
Nussenbaum, K., Prentis, E., & Hartley, C. A. (2020) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/xge0000753 · Cited by 11
Dickerson, K. C., & Adcock, R. A. (2018) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781119170174.epcn107 · Cited by 13
Curiosity or savouring? Information seeking is modulated by both uncertainty and valence.Preprint
van Lieshout, L. L. F., Traast, I. J., de Lange, F. P., & Cools, R. (2019) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/5y6pz · Cited by 12
Systematic Curiosity as an Integrative Tool for Human Flourishing: A Conceptual Review and Framework
Cunff, A. L. (2024) · Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s12124-024-09856-6 · Cited by 10
“…implying that these areas play a role in the anticipation of the rewarding nature of acquiring new information, even though this anticipation does not always align with tradition - ally expected reward pathways, as indicated by the lack of activity in the nucleus accumbens (Kang et al., 2009 ).”
Wagner, R., Pardi, G., Müller, J., Brucker, B., Schwarzer, S., & Gerjets, P. H. (2025) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2025.105326 · Cited by 11
An Exploratory Assessment of Epistemic Curiosity in Students at Three Doctor of Pharmacy Programs
Malcom, D. R., Cain, J. J., Frederick, E. K., & Johnson, C. (2020) · American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education · doi:10.5688/ajpe7970 · Cited by 11
Taylor, P. S., Campbell, D. L. M., Jurecky, E., Devine, N., Lee, C., & Hemsworth, P. H. (2023) · Frontiers in Animal Science · doi:10.3389/fanim.2023.1128792 · Cited by 10
“, 2015) and humans are willing to spend more scarce resources (limited tokens or waiting time) to obtain answers to trivia questions that they are more curious about (Kang et al., 2009) and even expose themselves to electrical shocks for access to the secret behind a magic trick (i.”
BackgroundAre curiosity and situational interest different? Exploring distinct antecedents and consequences
Shin, D. D., Park, Y., Lee, M., Kim, S., & Bong, M. (2023) · British Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjep.12627 · Cited by 10
Exploration: from machines to humans
Fox, L., Dan, O., Elber‐Dorozko, L., & Loewenstein, Y. (2020) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.08.004 · Cited by 11
“For example, one theory states that novel objects create more curiosity [69] while another theory states that people are more curious about information gaps - specific cases of high uncertainty [73,74].”
BackgroundThe Effect of Curiosity on Employee Performance: A Case Study in Indonesia
Suma, D., & Siregar, B. A. (2021) · Journal of Asian Finance Economics and Business · doi:10.13106/jafeb.2021.vol8.no3.1385 · Cited by 11
Yang, X., & Chen, J. (2015) · Environmental Education Research · doi:10.1080/13504622.2015.1076766 · Cited by 10
“This intrinsic motivation for learning, also known as curiosity, has been discussed in the field of education for years (Reio and Wiswell 2000; Litman and Spielberger 2003; Reio et al. 2006; Wouters, Van Der Spek, and Van Oostendorp 2008; Kang et al. 2009; Bowler 2010; Klahr, Zimmerman, and Jirout 2011).”
A rational analysis of curiosityPreprint
Dubey, R., & Griffiths, T. L. (2017) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1705.04351 · Cited by 10
“A number of studies have supported this prediction and showed that curiosity is an inverted U-shaped function of confidence, with people showing the highest curiosity for topics that they were moderately confident about (Kang et al., 2009; Baranes, Oudeyer, & Gottlieb, 2015).”
InfluentialFrom Curiosity, to Wonder, to Creativity: a Cognitive Developmental Psychology PerspectivePreprint
Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2020) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/6fp93 · Cited by 12
“This measure has been successfully used with adults, correlating with self-reported curiosity (Kang et al. 2009), and with infants when they viewed sequences of images that were first scrambled and then unscrambled (Ackermann, Hepach, and Mani 2020).”
Anticipation of novel environments enhances memory for incidental informationPreprint
Cen, D., Gkoumas, C., & Gruber, M. J. (2021) · Learning & Memory · doi:10.1101/lm.053392.121 · Cited by 10
“…induction of epistemic curiosity by trivia questions activated brain regions associated with reward anticipation (e.g., SN/VTA and nucleus) (e.g., Kang et al. 2009; Gruber et al. 2014), Therefore, these twotypesofcuriositymayinvolvedifferentprocessesthatcouldre-sult in…”
Reybrouck, M., Podlipniak, P., & Welch, D. (2024) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs14090825 · Cited by 9
“High information, in that view, is experienced as being intrinsically motivating [117,129,133,134].”
BackgroundAltmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2024) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105976 · Cited by 13
“Findings from adult populations where higher levels of curiosity have been linked to stronger activation in the dopaminergic brain circuits (Gruber et al., 2014; Kang et al., 2009) support the notion of its intrinsically rewarding nature.”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Kang, M. J., Hsu, M., Krajbich, I. M., Loewenstein, G., McClure, S. M., Wang, J. T.-Y., & Camerer, C. F.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- National Taiwan University (TW)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-08
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 963-973
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2104225738
- Cited by
- 882
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 74 · 2025: 96 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 80 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 114 · 2019: 76 · 2018: 52 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 14.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Educational Research Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Keywords
- curiosity, caudate nucleus, reward anticipation, trivia questions, memory enhancement, surprise, resource allocation, waiting time, token allocation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Arousal, Attention, Brain, Caudate Nucleus, Exploratory Behavior, Female, Frontal Lobe, Globus Pallidus, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motivation, Oxygen, Putamen, Reading, Mental Recall, Reward, Prefrontal Cortex, Parahippocampal Gyrus, Young Adult
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