Curiosity Killed the Cat but Not Memory: Enhanced Performance in High-Curiosity States

Curiosity benefits memory for target information and may also benefit memory for incidental information presented during curiosity states. However, it is not known whether incidental curiosity-enhanced memory depends on or is affected by the valence of the incidental information during curiosity states. Here, older and younger participants incidentally encoded unrelated face images (positive, negative, and neutral) while they anticipated answers to trivia questions. We found memory enhancements for answers to trivia questions and unrelated faces presented during high-curiosity compared with low-curiosity states in both younger and older adults. Interestingly, face valence did not modify memory for unrelated faces. This suggests processes associated with the elicitation of curiosity enhance memory for incidental information instead of valence.

Automated summary

The study found that curiosity enhances memory for both target and incidental information. Interestingly, the valence of facial images did not affect memory during states of curiosity, indicating that processes associated with curiosity boost memory for incidental information regardless of valence.