Children who are more curious learn more in school, but little is known about how to promote curiosity-driven behaviors. In a preregistered experiment, 103 children (54 boys, 49 girls, ages 5-7 years) were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were encouraged to ask questions, or to listen carefully, during eight one-on-one science lessons over 2 weeks. Children in the question-asking condition valued new science information significantly more than children in the listening condition (Wilcoxon r = 0.23). Children with less background knowledge, as measured by their baseline vocabulary and science achievement, showed greater curiosity and learning benefits from question-asking. These results suggest that practice with question-asking can boost some aspects of curiosity and learning in science domains.

Children who are more curious learn more and perform better in school. Although there has been some work on how to induce curiosity in the moment, much less is known about how to promote curiosity-driven behaviors across contexts. In a preregistered experiment, 103 children ages 5-7-years-old participated in eight virtual science lessons over two weeks. Children were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were encouraged to ask questions, or to a condition in which they were asked to listen carefully. At the end of training, children in the question-asking condition valued new science information significantly more than children in the listening condition. They also learned marginally more than children in the listening condition. Children with less background knowledge benefited more from question-asking practice. Our results suggest that question-asking practice can boost some aspects of curiosity and learning.