Imagine having a magic button in your brain. A button you can push to open your mind and effectively start learning and memorizing new things. Imagine you can do one simple thing before you go into class, or before you approach a new task at work, that will make you perform better (and enjoy it more as well). Now, stop imagining! Why? Because this magic button is already embedded in our brain. Curious?
If you are curious and want to find more about this magic button, you’d be happy to know you have just found it! Curiosity is scientifically proven to improve learning and memory. It actually changes your brain and creates intrinsic motivation to learn and memorize.
It may sound trivial at first: if you are curious about something, you clearly have increased motivation to learn more about it. But research shows that being curious about one thing, opens your mind to learn better about other things as well (even things you are not that much curious about). “Curiosity may put the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain any kind of information, like a vortex that sucks in what you are motivated to learn, and also everything around it,” explains Dr. Matthias Gruber, of University of California at Davis.
The implications of this idea are profound. If we can just actively push this button by being curious about something – anything – before we need to learn or memorize something new, we will perform better. So can we “force ourselves” to be curious on call? Well, here’s an idea…
Children have natural curiosity. Even before they learn to speak and ask “Why” or “How”, they explore the world with their eyes (and mind) wide open. They want to see everything. They actively and intentionally observe. That’s curiosity in its purest form.
As we grow, most of us gradually lose this pure form of curiosity. We replace it with very focused interest in specific things. But with seempli we are working on regaining and refining that exact same ability. We aim to revive our natural curiosity using guided (yet open) exploration of the world around us.
So imagine picking a seempli Seed in the morning, just before class or on the way to work, and using it to explore the world. The act of looking around you, exploring and noticing details, not being sure what it is you will find, and eventually finding something new and exciting, is in fact recreating that pure curiosity you practiced as a child. When you do that, there’s a good chance you are proactively pushing this magic button in your brain – the button that puts your mind in a learning mindset, ready to absorb whatever it will come across next.
Try it and let me know what you experience. And if you are a teacher, why not try it in class?
Aren’t you curious to know what will happen?