Why a good question helps you remember
The study
Matthias Gruber, Bernard Gelman and Charan Ranganath (2014) asked people questions, measured how curious they were about each answer, and scanned their brains while they waited for it. Later, both at once and a day after, people remembered better the answers they had been curious about.
They also remembered better unrelated material shown to them while they were curious. During high curiosity, brain areas linked to reward, the midbrain and the nucleus accumbens, were more active, and the link between the midbrain and the hippocampus, which forms memories, predicted who gained most.
What it means for learning
Curiosity is not only pleasant: it seems to put the brain into a state that is better at keeping things. The authors end by stressing the value of stirring curiosity to make learning work better.
That is why the Shorts of this channel open with a question in the first second, and why the lesson cards start with “predict” before the film: a guess makes you want to know if you were right.
Try it on yourself
Before you open a pattern, guess: why 137.5°? Why a bell curve? Then watch, and see how much stays with you the next day.
Start with a question: the patterns →