Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Curiosity has a tumultuous past. Originally curiosity wasconsidered a vice of excess leading to misconduct anddisaster. Recently, curiosity has transformed into a virtue ofself-expression resulting in success and better performance. Inclassrooms, educators try to find ways of eliciting curiosityfrom their students: allowing them to pick their own researchtopics and books, including pop culture references in lecture,and many more strategies. Recent adult studies have revealedbetter memory for trivia facts that elicit more curiosity. Thecurrent study modifies the methods used in previous adultstudies in order to make them more appropriate for children.Results from a sample of 24 7- and 8-year-olds reveal that byage eight curiosity significantly affects memory for triviafacts. This research may shed light on the cognitiveadvantages of curiosity and legitimatize the encouragement ofcuriosity in classrooms for school age children.