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Visual affects: Linking curiosity, Aha-Erlebnis, and memory through information gain.

Sander Van de Cruys1, Claudia Damiano1, Yannick Boddez2

  • 1Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven, Belgium.

Cognition
|April 2, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Curiosity and aha moments are linked to the amount of information gained from solving puzzles. This supports the idea that curiosity is driven by expected learning and that the reward of understanding is tied to actual information gain.

Keywords:
Aesthetic appreciationAha-ErlebnisCuriosityInformation gainIntrinsic motivationMemoryMooney imagesSemantic ambiguityUncertainty

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychoaesthetics

Background:

  • Current curiosity theories link it to expected learning progress or information gain.
  • Few studies have quantified subjective information gain and its relation to curiosity measures.
  • Mooney images offer engaging perceptual puzzles for studying curiosity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify subjective information gain and link it to curiosity and aha experiences.
  • To test the expected information gain theory of curiosity.
  • To investigate the role of aha experience in mediating curiosity's effect on memory.

Main Methods:

  • Participants (279) reported curiosity about Mooney images and the strength of their aha experience.
  • Crowdsourced semantic entropy of image guesses quantified potential information gain.
  • An unannounced memory test assessed recall after curiosity relief.

Main Results:

  • Curiosity and aha experience strongly correlated with semantic information gain.
  • Aha experience, or curiosity relief, fully mediated the effect of curiosity on memory.
  • Findings support the expected information gain theory of curiosity.

Conclusions:

  • Subjective information gain is a key factor in driving curiosity.
  • The intrinsic reward of understanding (aha experience) is linked to actual information gain.
  • Aha experience plays a crucial role in consolidating memory related to curiosity.