In a recent review published in the journal Nature Reviews Psychology , researchers explore current research on childhood curiosity, its definition, its variability across age, contexts, and culture, its long- and short-term benefits, and the ideal means to support its development. They collate and discuss more than 170 studies aimed at understanding curiosity, focusing on works that treat curiosity as a state of information-seeking behavior that is internally motivated in response to a specific question or gap in knowledge. This review further highlights conventional difficulties in studying curiosity, particularly the challenges of measuring and distinguishing it from other cognitive processes and information-seeking behaviors, while suggesting future directions to overcome these challenges.
Study: Curiosity in children across ages and contexts. Image Credit: Maria Sbytova / Shutterstock What is childhood curiosity, and how does it benefit children? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines 'curiosity' as "an eager desire to learn and often to learn what does not immediately concern oneself." However, in psychology and science, the definition of curiosity is not as straightforward, with most current definitions being approach- or context-specific.
The journal paper emphasizes that curiosity is operationalized as a state involving information-seeking behavior that is intrinsically motivated and seeks specific information. Despite the absence of a universally accepted working de.