Curiosity Releases Dopamine, Which Not Only Brings Pleasure but Also Improves Observation and Memory
The brain’s desire and reward system (the producer of the neurotransmitter dopamine) is deeply embedded in our human development and evolution. Since social scientists believe that reward drives all behavior, and behavior creates evolutionary adaptation, the dopamine system has been critical in our evolution into the complex beings we are (Muller, 2014).
When students are curious and seek to satisfy their goals and desires, they get a hit of this pleasure-producing chemical. In one study on the effects of dopamine, people were given a list of trivia questions, like “Who was the president of the United States when Uncle Sam first got a beard?” or “What does the term ‘dinosaur’ actually mean?” and then asked how curious they were to learn each answer. They then were given brain scans while being presented with both the answers to the trivia questions and additional unrelated information. When the participants’ curiosity was triggered, their brains released dopamine. Upon being tested afterwards, participants were much more likely to remember information on the topics they were curious about. In addition, when participants were in a curious state, they were also more likely to remember the paired, unrelated information. In other words, when we are curious, our brains’ surge in dopamine causes us to take in and remember the entire landscape of experience and information more deeply. This is because dopamine makes the hippocampus (the part of the brain associated with long-term memory) function better.
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