Ist es tatsächlich Wissbegierde, die uns beim Lernen hilft, und wenn ja, warum?
David Janitzek
2026-03-23
2 Min. Lesezeit
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Schüler stellen Fragen und suchen nach Lösungen – das ist etwas, was jeder begabte Pädagoge als seine Berufung ansieht. Und im Zentrum dieses gesamten Prozesses steht die Wissbegierde. Wenn Kinder wissbegierig sind, ist es viel einfacher, sie in einen herausfordernden Bildungsprozess einzubeziehen. Was genau ist Wissbegierde und wie funktioniert das? Die Biochemie des Gehirns verändert sich, wenn wir wissbegierig werden, und hilft uns, besser zu lernen und Informationen zu speichern.
Our brains and our curiosity
Nineteen volunteers were asked to examine more than 100 questions, such as: What does the term dinosaur mean? Which of the Beatles' singles stayed on the charts for 19 weeks? Participants assessed each question as to how interesting the answers were. Then all participants reviewed the questions and answered them, while the researchers monitored brain activity using MRI. When the participants' curiosity increased, the activity of the reward system also increased.
Curiosity also helps us to absorb inadequate information
The researchers showed random facial images without giving the participants any explanation -- people whose curiosity had already been aroused earlier had better facial memory -- and this proves that interesting brains are better at learning not only topics, but also other things -- even random, boring information.
The evolutionary basis
It's hard to explain why we actually have such a high speed of learning. You can look at it from an evolutionary perspective. Researcher Charan Ranganath believes it's because of our innate struggle with uncertainty. The more we know about the world, the more likely we are to survive its dangers. Another unknown is why some people seem naturally more interested in the world.
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