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Curious children are better able to comprehend basic math and reading activities, according to new research.
The study, led by Prachi Shah from the University of Michigan, was published in the journal Pediatric Research and is the first study to investigate a possible link between curiosity and early academic success among young children.
Shah and her team of researchers found that for children in lower socio-economic communicates, curiosity is even more important for higher academic achievement than for those from wealthier backgrounds.
“Our results suggest that while higher curiosity is associated with higher academic achievement in all children, the association of curiosity with academic achievement is greater in children with low socio-economic status,” she said.
According to Shah, most current early learning interventions focus on improving a child's effortful control which includes their ability to concentrate or control impulses.
However, very few interventions aim to cultivate curiosity in young children – a trait that Shah said has shown to improve learning outcomes.
“Our results suggest that after controlling for other factors associated with higher achievement, curiosity continues to make a small but meaningful contribution to academic achievement,” Shah said.
“Even if a child manifests low effortful control, high curiosity may be associated with more optimal academic achievement.”
Shah said that while most classroom interventions focus on the cultivation of early effortful control and a child's self-regulatory capacities, her study’s results suggest that an alternate message, focused on the importance of curiosity, should also be considered.
Why does curiosity improve memory?
A separate study by the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience found that curiosity helps us learn about a topic, and being in a curious state also helps the brain memorise unrelated information.
Participants in the study first rated their curiosity about the answers to a series of trivia questions, an article on the center’s website explained. Later, the participants had their brains scanned while they learned the answers to these questions.
As might be expected, people were better at learning the trivia information when they were highly curious about it.
More surprisingly, they also showed better learning of the unrelated faces that were shown while their curiosity was aroused. Information learned during a curious state was better retained over a 24-hour delay.
Matthias Gruber, a postdoctoral researcher at the center, said the findings suggest ways to enhance learning in the classroom and other settings.
“Curiosity may put the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain any kind of information, like a vortex that sucks in what you are motivated to learn, and also everything around it,” Gruber said.