Epistemic curiosity in old age: Why does advanced age sometimes impair but sometimes facilitate epistemic curiosity?

• Applicants: Professor Kou Murayama, Ph.D.; Professorin Michiko Sakaki, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 522476238

Epistemic curiosity refers to the desire for new knowledge and information and is one of the fundamental driving forces for human accomplishments, from cultural activities to scientific discoveries. Most studies on epistemic curiosity have focused on children or young adults. However, epistemic curiosity has been increasingly recognized to play a key role in adaptive aging. Nevertheless, previous studies have provided contradictory findings, with some suggesting age-related declines in epistemic curiosity and others suggesting age-related facilitation in epistemic curiosity. The core objective of this project is to address this puzzle by determining the mechanisms underlying age-related changes in epistemic curiosity. Building on recent theoretical advances in the field, we propose that contradictory findings are mediated by multiple distinct age-related changes, including a) the amount of prior knowledge individuals have, b) whether individuals can retrieve relevant prior knowledge, and c) perceived costs associated with information seeking. We hypothesize that their individual effects and interactions result in apparent complex effects of age on epistemic curiosity, such that advanced age sometimes enhances, sometimes impairs, and sometimes does not alter epistemic curiosity. The project will test the following five hypotheses (H1-H5). H1) Advanced age is associated with expanded knowledge networks, leading to higher levels of epistemic curiosity in older adults compared to younger adults. H2) Older adults are more likely to fail in retrieving relevant prior knowledge. This age-related increase in retrieval failure leads to higher levels of epistemic curiosity in older adults. H3) Given the critical role of prior knowledge in the curiosity generation process, H2 holds only when individuals have relevant prior knowledge. H4) Older adults perceive higher costs of cognitively and physically demanding activities. This age-related increase in perceived costs leads to older adults’ disengagement from information-seeking when the required effort is high. H5) Given the critical role of prior knowledge in the curiosity generation process, H4 holds only when individuals have relevant prior knowledge. These hypotheses will be tested through a series of psychological experiments, where we will systematically manipulate the relevant factors and test their roles in explaining the relationship between aging and epistemic curiosity. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed project is the first systematic examination of one of the least explored but important topics in research on curiosity—epistemic curiosity in old age. By uncovering the mechanisms behind the effects of age on curiosity, the proposed project aims to reconcile the inconsistent findings reported in the literature and advance our understanding of the psychological mechanisms behind human curiosity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants