Promoting curiosity in children may be an the way to address the achievement gap
says promoting curiosity in children may be an important way to address the achievement gap, regardless of their background.
It’s good to be curious, according to scientists. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that children with higher levels of curiosity do better at school, regardless of their economic background.
“Promoting curiosity in children, especially those from environments of economic disadvantage, may be an important, under-recognised way to address the achievement gap,” said Dr Prachi Shah, who led the study.
While researchers at Oregon State University found that being more curious makes us more creative problem solvers, and therefore better employees.
Other researchers have found that being curious can help us with our relationships, reduce our anxiety and enable us lead more meaningful and purposeful lives
Curiosity is a personality trait that we all have, though some have more than others. And while scientists have struggled to come up with a definition that they can all agree on, the Oxford Dictionary of English defines curiosity as simply a “strong desire to learn or know something.”
And according to a new study carried out by the University of Reading and Kochi University of Technology, “there’s accumulating evidence” that this “strong desire to learn or know” can help protect our mental and physical health in later life.
The researchers, led by Dr Michiko Sakaki, found that momentary feelings of curiosity can produce short-term improvements in mental function, and that those who experience curiosity more frequently - or as Dr Sakaki, those with a “chronic tendency to experience curiosity” - may experience long-term improvements in memory, general cognitive performance and mental wellbeing.
“When one has a general tendency to experience curiosity, such experiences can have cumulative effects and long-term consequences,” she explains.
Exactly how curiosity provides these benefits is not entirely understood, but Dr Sakaki and her team believe that curiosity can change behaviour and alter the brain’s function and structure.
For example, each moment of curiosity triggers the release of the chemicals dopamine and noradrenaline. These chemicals are known as neurotransmitters, and they trigger activity in the brain.
One part they trigger is the hippocampus. This part of the brain plays an essential role in the formation of memories, but it’s also vulnerable to age-related decline. However, regular activity in the hippocampus helps maintain its performance.
Additionally, both dopamine and noradrenaline have anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation has been linked to conditions such as stroke, but more recent research has discovered that inflammation may also be linked to cognitive decline and emotional disorders, such as depression.
And in terms of behavioural changes, those who have quite a curious disposition have been found to be more likely to participate in activities that stimulate the mind and exercise the body.
However, as we get older we become less curious. It’s just a normal part of the ageing process and is possibly linked to the decline of the same brain processes that deal with memory and cognition.
But whatever the reason for its decline, curiosity is something that most of us will have to work at to maintain. How is this done?
“That’s a very good question,” says Dr Sakaki. We still don’t know exactly how to do that. One thing I would say is that, according to a prominent theory about human curiosity, curiosity is based on knowledge gaps. So, when people realise there is a gap in their knowledge, they can become curious about the gap and then try to seek an answer.
A naive idea is that, if you don’t know anything about the world, you should have a lot of knowledge gaps. Actually, it’s the other way round: if you have more knowledge, you’re more likely to be aware of the gaps
“I think it would be good to keep learning something new, which is going to increase the chances of us becoming aware of the gaps; otherwise, you would be ignorant of what you don’t know.” Despite her team’s promising results, Dr Sakaki is reluctant to oversell them. She feels that more studies are needed before she can be confident in their findings.
Currently, most of what’s known about activity in the brain during episodes of curiosity comes from studies involving animals. And the data on curiosity traits in humans has predominantly come from questionnaires.
“Questionnaires don’t really tell us anything about the mechanisms involved,” says Dr Sakaki. “It’s simply, curious people tend to have this, this and this. And we don’t really know which is the cause and which is the outcome in these types of studies.” She believes that longitudinal studies are needed. In a longitudinal study, researchers would follow the progress of individuals over many years, frequently monitoring changes in their curiosity levels, cognitive abilities, and mental and physical wellbeing.
“The strong evidence about curiosity and ageing should come from the longitudinal studies,” she says. “It’s a time-consuming process, but I think it’s the next step.” There’s every reason to believe that a longitudinal study would support Dr Sakaki’s findings. Not least because a longitudinal study into the benefits of “openness to experience”, a personality trait strongly linked to curiosity, found that those who had a relatively high score on an “openness to experience” scale tended to seek out educational activities throughout their lives and experienced less decline in their cognitive abilities in later life.
And given that we already know that curiosity can make us better learners, more employable, less anxious and more purposeful, why wait any longer to develop a “strong desire to learn and know?”
