How Autism Spectrum Disorder Traits Relate to Curiosity-Driven Learning: A Population Study
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2022-06-21
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Curiosity-driven learning is a type of information-seeking behaviour that is intrinsically
motivated, which is proposed to be structured through maximising learning progress. These processes
have not yet been extensively studied in relation to autistic traits, although previous work has
found differences in explorative behaviour between autistic and neurotypical children. To test how
autistic traits relate to curiosity-driven learning, we formulated three hypotheses: autistic
people find small amounts of learning progress rewarding, they prefer stable learning progress, or
they prefer prediction error minimisation over learning progress maximisation. To test our
hypotheses, we used a task in which participants could explore and learn about behaviour of
different cartoon animals and measured autistic traits with the Adult Social Behaviour
Questionnaire (ASBQ). We used a general linear model to examine which factors determined when a
participant would switch to another animal and how autistic traits related to this behaviour. We
also performed exploratory analyses based on task performance and ASBQ total scores and subscales
to determine how autistic traits related to information- processing in general. Although we found
that people with a low insistence on sameness score appear to focus on maximising learning
progress, while those with a high insistence on sameness score do not, we found no evidence in
favour of our hypotheses. Our exploratory analyses showed that there were differences related to
ASBQ scores in terms of how they processed information and acted during the task and how the
expression of these differences related to ASBQ score profiles.
Keywords: curiosity, curiosity-driven learning, information-processing, autism spectrum
disorder, autistic traits, population study
Description
Citation
Faculty
Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen