The Magic Curiosity Arousing Tricks (MagicCATs) database in Italian younger and middle-aged adults: Descriptive...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Epistemic emotions, especially curiosity, are known to improve memory recall.
• Previous research often used trivia, facing challenges in consistent curiosity induction across diverse populations.
• A standardized method for eliciting curiosity is crucial for controlled memory studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Magic Curiosity Arousing Tricks (MagicCATs) dataset in an Italian population.
• To establish norms for magic trick video clips across different age groups.
• To explore associations between epistemic emotions using machine learning.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the MagicCATs database of 166 magic trick videos.
• Collected data from younger and middle-aged Italian adults.
• Applied association rule learning to analyze emotion co-occurrences.

Main Results:

• Provided basic characteristics and norms for the MagicCATs stimuli in the Italian context.
• Identified associations between epistemic emotions, aiding stimulus selection.
• Demonstrated the potential of MagicCATs for controlled curiosity induction.

Conclusions:

• The MagicCATs dataset is a validated tool for inducing curiosity in Italian adults.
• Association rule learning offers insights into epistemic emotion relationships.
• MagicCATs facilitates more systematic research on curiosity and memory.