Infant curiosity has long been neglected in psychological research, even though it may have a crucial impact on how infants structure their own learning and thereby their cognitive development. Infants also differ in how curious they are about exploring the world around them, but these differences have so far been hard to measure. To address this question, researchers in the Psychology Department have developed a questionnaire in which parents of five to 24-month-olds answer 23 questions about their child’s exploration tendencies to offer a measure of their trait curiosity.

The work, led by then PhD student Elena Altmann, found these 23 questions could reliably capture differences in infants’ and toddlers’ overall curiosity and was published in a recent paper. The questionnaire identified three curiosity subscales covering differences in broader, sensory exploration; deeper, investigative exploration; and interactive exploration through social partners. This research also found relations between infant and child curiosity and their temperament. This is something that is well established in adults but had not yet been observable in infancy.

Developing reliable questionnaires is a complex process involving many iterations of refinements to capture the most relevant information. The initial questionnaire included numerous questions covering various ways in which infants and toddlers can interact with their surroundings to explore and learn about them. The researchers then used advanced statistical analysis to select those questions that formed the most coherent picture of how infants differ in this exploration. This final questionnaire is expected to have a great impact on developmental research and how we understand individual differences in infants’ exploration, self-directed learning, and interacting with people to gain information. It is important to know, however, that these differences are absolutely natural and not indicative of a better or worse nor right or wrong development.

Dr. Elena Altmann said: “We saw this as an important gap in our field and I am glad that I was able to take this on during my PhD studies, as this was actually not part of my initial plan. It is wonderful to see how positively this questionnaire has been received in the scientific community, so that there are already several translations now and we came together in an international collaboration to develop a continuation applicable to young children between two and five years of age.”

Dr Marina Bazhydai, co-author on the project, noted: “It is absolutely crucial to use valid and reliable instruments like this curiosity questionnaire in psychological research of early childhood. These measures allow us to develop and run rigorous studies of an effect (of infant curiosity, in this case) on later life outcomes, such as academic achievement or wellbeing.”

Professor Gert Westermann, senior author on the project, said: “This robust questionnaire is a very important step in our ability to measure and understand – and ultimately foster – curiosity in the youngest children, a strong predictor for positive life outcomes. Its significance has already been shown by the strong and positive international echo when we presented this work at conferences, and by the various translations. Well done Elena for leading on this groundbreaking work.”

The team is thankful to the 370 UK caregivers who responded to the questionnaire. They also linked up with other Babylabs across the UK who helped widen the questionnaire’s reach by sharing calls for participation.