Curiosity Drive and Selective Behavior

This paper has considered some characteristics of curiosity drive and its function in selective behavior. A. Curiosity drive has following three characteristics. 1. It is aroused by extraneous stimuli. 2. It dose not seem that anxiety drive added to curiosity drive affects the animal's arousal level. Curiosity drive urges animal to choose the unfamiliar side, while anxiety drive urges animal to choose the familiar side. 3. Curiosity drive is decreased by habituation mechanism. B. Denny (1957, 1965) found that animal prefered to go to the side where it was rewarded less often. This finding is opposite to the Ramond's (1954) result. The discrepancy between them may be explained in terms of two learning processes; one is food rewarded learning process, the other is perceptual learning process which is mediated by curiosity drive