Curiosity evolves as information unfolds

When people feel curious, they often seek information to resolve their curiosity, yet resolution may follow the accumulation of information over time rather than in a single step. We investigated how curiosity changes during dynamic information gathering and how these changes relate to affect, cognition, and behavior. Human participants completed an Evolving Line Drawing Task (ELDT), reporting guesses about drawings’ identities, confidence, affect, and choices to continue watching or stop. In Study 1, the timing of decisions was externally imposed; in Study 2, participants controlled the timing. Across both studies, curiosity evolved in concert with emotional states and confidence. The relationship between curiosity and confidence depended on stimulus entropy (variance of guesses across participants) and on guess accuracy. Curiosity was multifaceted and was experienced as positive or negative depending on the state of information gathering. Critically, even when participants could immediately view the final drawing (a “spoiler”), higher curiosity promoted continuing to engage in the unfolding process. Curiosity thus changes with information accumulation and drives engagement with stimuli, highlighting value in the process of discovery rather than merely hastening resolution.

Abigail Hsiung, Jia-Hou Poh, Scott A. Huettel, R. Alison Adcock