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How do learning progress and novelty drive human curiosity?

Poli F, Meyer M, Mars RB, et al. · Cognition · 2022

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

People decide to stop exploring a task when they stop learning from it, and they choose their next task based on both how much they expect to learn and how new it is.

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Key findings

Participants were more likely to keep playing with a character when their learning progress was high, with the probability of switching increasing as learning progress decreased, showing a beta of -0.13. When choosing a new character, participants were significantly drawn to both expected learning progress (beta of 0.24) and perceptual novelty (beta of 0.87). Furthermore, the influence of novelty on their choices decreased over time, while the influence of expected learning progress remained stable.

Methodology

Researchers tested 55 participants in an online game where they selected and tracked 3 different cartoon characters hiding behind a hedge. Each character's hiding spot followed a unique probability distribution with differing levels of noise and volatility. The researchers tracked when participants chose to switch characters and which character they selected next, using computational modeling to analyze how learning progress and novelty affected these choices.

Limitations

First, the study was conducted entirely online with a sample of undergraduate students, which may not generalize to broader or older populations. Second, because the study did not include external rewards, it does not show how curiosity-driven exploration interacts with or trade-offs against extrinsic motivations like money or points. Finally, while the computational model infers internal states of learning progress, it cannot definitively prove these calculations are consciously occurring in the participants' minds.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

  • SupportsIntrinsic Motivationconcept

    Curiosity-driven intrinsic exploration is guided by expected learning progress and novelty, with people opting to switch tasks when their progress in learning starts to decline.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

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