Curiosity has long been a topic of scientific interest, but it encompasses so many potential traits and behaviors that it has been difficult to precisely target the cognitive and neural mechanisms that drive it. Recent work has reinvigorated the scientific approach to this topic by shifting from trait-level questions to a neurobiological perspective that emphasizes behavior, exploration and information-seeking. By viewing information as a reward, this research has leveraged the extensive body of work on reward processing to understand curiosity as a type of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed behavior. However, this information-as-reward framework raises a host of new questions about how curiosity develops and how it drives learning. In this dissertation, I aimed to test this framework and to address a series of questions about how curiosity drives exploration, learning, and memory. Chapter 1 addresses the question of how curiosity changes across the adult lifespan and tests whether these changes mirror well-established declines in dopamine transmission and reward sensitivity. The first study in this chapter found that, rather than showing declines in curiosity, older adults in fact displayed behaviors that reflected increases in curiosity. They were more willing to wait for information than younger adults and were equally able to remember the information they learned. The second study sought to replicate these results and to examine their neural substrates using fMRI. This study found that older and younger adults displayed equal levels of curiosity and memory. Results from fMRI also showed similar effects for both age groups: increased activation in brain regions associated with reward processing, as well as semantic memory, was related to curiosity and to memory. Chapter 2 explored the other end of development and examined changes in curiosity from late childhood into early adulthood. In this study, we focused on two different conceptualizations of curiosity -- willingness to wait (as in Chapter 1) and also a new measure of exploratory visual behavior. Results showed increases in both waiting and visual exploration between childhood and adulthood. These changes in curiosity were also accompanied by improvements in memory. These findings, like those in Chapter 1, provide evidence against the hypothesis that curiosity declines with age, and also expands our understanding of how different measures of curiosity-driven behavior may relate to one another. Chapter 3 addresses a fundamental question about how to evaluate curiosity and how different forms of curiosity cluster together. Using a large online sample, we obtained two separate groups of measures: measures of curiosity-driven behaviors (willingness to wait, ratings of interest about specific questions, curiosity-related memory), and measures of curiosity as a trait. Additionally, we obtained measures of traits and behaviors though to be related to curiosity, including impulsivity, need for cognition and willingness to wait for monetary rewards. Results revealed that different aspects of curiosity-related behavior cluster together, and that while there was a relationship between self-report and behavioral measures, there were also more nuanced differences in the relationships between different behaviors. Overall, the results from these three lines of research advance our understanding of curiosity by examining the extent to which curiosity is similar to reward processing, testing how it changes across the lifespan, and comparing different types of curiosity. The findings also open up new questions about the influence of other cognitive processes on curiosity and suggest ways in which we can better study how curiosity drives exploration and learning.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Tartu, 2006. / Thesis based on four papers.

The protection of assets is an important part of daily life. Currently this is done using a combination of passive security cameras and security officers actively patrolling the premises. However, security officers, being human, are subject to a number of limitations both physical and mental. A security robot would not suffer from these limitations, however currently there are a number of challenges to implementing such a robot. These challenges include navigation in a complex real-world environment, fast and accurate threat detection and threat tracking. Overcoming these challenges is the focus of my research. To that end a small security robot, the CuWITH or Curious WITH,has been developed and is presented in this thesis. The CuWITH utilises a programmable navigation system, curiosity-based threat detection and curiosity-driven threat tracking curiosity to protect a real office environment. In this thesis we will first discuss the CuWITH's system design in detail, with a particular focus on the components and the architectural strategies employed. We then move to a more detailed examination of the mathematical underpinnings of the CuWITHs curiosity based threat detection and curiosity driven threat tracking. The details of the CuWITH's navigation will also be explained. We will then present a number of experiments which demonstrate the effectiveness of the CuWITH. We show that the programmable navigation of the CuWITH, although simple, allows for easy modification of the patrol path without risk to the stability of the system. We will then present the results of both offline and online testing of the CuWITH's curiosity based threat detection. The reaction time and accuracy of the CuWITHs curiosity driven threat tracking will also be illustrated. As a final test the CuWITH is instructed to execute a patrol in a real office environment, with threatening and non-threatening persons present. The results of this test demonstrate all major systems of the CuWITH working together very well and successfully executing the patrol even when moved to a different environment.

The protection of assets is an important part of daily life. Currently this is done using a combination of passive security cameras and security officers actively patrolling the premises. However, security officers, being human, are subject to a number of limitations both physical and mental. A security robot would not suffer from these limitations, however currently there are a number of challenges to implementing such a robot. These challenges include navigation in a complex real-world environment, fast and accurate threat detection and threat tracking. Overcoming these challenges is the focus of my research. To that end a small security robot, the CuWITH or Curious WITH,has been developed and is presented in this thesis. The CuWITH utilises a programmable navigation system, curiosity-based threat detection and curiosity-driven threat tracking curiosity to protect a real office environment. In this thesis we will first discuss the CuWITH's system design in detail, with a particular focus on the components and the architectural strategies employed. We then move to a more detailed examination of the mathematical underpinnings of the CuWITHs curiosity based threat detection and curiosity driven threat tracking. The details of the CuWITH's navigation will also be explained. We will then present a number of experiments which demonstrate the effectiveness of the CuWITH. We show that the programmable navigation of the CuWITH, although simple, allows for easy modification of the patrol path without risk to the stability of the system. We will then present the results of both offline and online testing of the CuWITH's curiosity based threat detection. The reaction time and accuracy of the CuWITHs curiosity driven threat tracking will also be illustrated. As a final test the CuWITH is instructed to execute a patrol in a real office environment, with threatening and non-threatening persons present. The results of this test demonstrate all major systems of the CuWITH working together very well and successfully executing the patrol even when moved to a different environment.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Paul J. Silvia ; submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-33).

No description available.

No description available.

The  aim  of  the  current  study  was  to investigate  if  Openness  –  to  –  Experience  and  Neuroticism  personality  traits  are associated with curiosity. This will help us to estimate whether knowledge expansion is dependent on a person’s personality and which trait is more willing to invest time on learning.  The  experiment  consisted  of  two  different  sessions.  To estimate  curiosity, 40 subjects first performed a word-synonymy task, where Shannon’s (1948) entropy was estimated  and the result of which lead to the measurement  of uncertainty.  Then in a second session, participants had the option to request for feedback between a few alternative  options  at  a  cost  (time),  and  they  were  also  required  to  estimate  their satisfaction  about  the  answer  on  a  valence  rating  scale.  Finally, participants  were screened  for  personality  traits.  Neurotic  individuals  appeared  to  be  more  willing  in investing time on feedback request, in contrast to open individuals.

Uncertainty is woven into the fabric of human experience. All types of experiences involve some degree of uncertainty. Given the pervasiveness of uncertainty in daily life, individual differences how people think, behave, and feel about uncertainty matters. Some respond to uncertainty with fear and anxiety while others respond to uncertainty with curiosity and interest. The current project focused on two responses to uncertainty: intolerance of uncertainty and curiosity. The three main aims were to examine the relationship between these constructs directly, to investigate their unique contributions to outcomes of wellbeing and general psychological distress, and to examine cognitive appraisals associated with proximate outcomes of worry and interest. A large online adult sample (N = 413) completed self-report measures of IU, curiosity, personality, well-being, and general psychological distress symptoms. Participants also completed a novel vignette-based task of hypothetical future scenarios that varied in degree of uncertainty and pleasantness. IU was inversely associated with only some of the hypothesized curiosity dimensions. After accounting for personality traits, trait IU explained an additional 15% of the variance in general psychological distress, and trait curiosity explained an additional 16% of the variance in wellbeing. Each reflects a small but noteworthy additional contribution to these outcomes. For uncertain situations only, coping potential demonstrated a modest moderation effect of the appraisal of uncertainty on worry and interest, in support of project hypotheses. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.