Making our way in the world Curiosity encompasses such a large set of behaviors, there probably isn’t any single "curiosity gene" that makes humans wonder about the world and explore their environment. That said, curiosity does have a genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity. Researchers did identify changes to a specific gene type that is more common in individual songbirds that are especially keen on exploring their environment, according to a 2007 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Science. In humans, mutations in this gene, known as DRD4, have been associated with a person’s propensity to seek novelty. Regardless of their genetic makeup, infants have to learn an incredible amount of information in a short window of time, and curiosity is one of the tools humans have found to accomplish that gargantuan task. "If infants weren't curious, they'd never learn anything and development wouldn't happen, Twomey said. Hundreds of studies show that infants prefer novelty. In a classic 1964 study, a psychologist showed that infants between 2 months and 6 months old grew less and less interested in a complex visual pattern the more they looked at it. A 1983 study in the journal Developmental Psychology of slightly older children (ages 8 months and 12 months old) indicated that once babies got used to familiar toys, they preferred new ones, a scenario that caregivers likely know all too well. This preference for novelty has a name: perceptual curiosity. It's what motivates non-human animals, human infants and probably human adults to explore and seek out new things before growing less interested in them after continued exposure. As these studies show, infants do this all the time. Babbling is one example. "The exploration they do is systematic babbling," Twomey said. When most babies are just a few months old, they start making vowel and repetitive, speech-like sounds as they learn how to speak. Babbling demonstrates the utility of perceptual curiosity. It begins as a completely random exploration of what their vocal anatomy can do. Eventually "they'll hit on something and think 'That sounds like something my mum or dad would do,'" she said. And then they do it again. And again. But it isn't just infants. Crows are famous for using perceptual curiosity as a means of learning. For instance, the drive to explore their environment probably helps crows learn to fashion the simple tools they use to fish larvae out of hard-to-reach crevices. Moreover, experiments with robots programmed to be curious have shown that exploration is a powerful way to adapt to a new environment.
