This is the Henry Cole Lecture I gave in 2010 at the V&A museum. Most of the pictorial materials come from the V&A collections. There is also a short film that was inspired by the talk: http://royalsociety.org/Events/The-Curious-Brain-in-the-Museum/

1. Henry Cole Lecture 2010
The curious brain in the museum
Uta Frith FBA, FRS
UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Friday, 20 May 2011

2. The Royal Society in the V&A
In 2010, the Henry Cole lecture
also celebrates the 350th
anniversary of the Royal Society
I am honoured to have been invited
as a Fellow of the Royal Society to
deliver this year's lecture
British Galleries: 1660 Charles II
Friday, 20 May 2011
First have to explain why I am giving this third Henry Cole Lecture.
And it is all to do with the 350th Anniversary of the Royal Society,
and with the V&A’s idea that a Fellow might say something that could be relevant to museum education.
But there are already connections between the RS and the V&A.
In the British Galleries of the museum you can see a variety of objects related to the founding years of the RS.
Here is a splendid bust of Charles the second, who granted a Royal Charter to the Society, which was founded in November 1660 in London.

3. I have no special talent
I am only passionately
curious
Albert Einstein FRS
1879-1955
Royal Society Portrait Collection
Friday, 20 May 2011
Here is a portrait of a famous FRS: Albert Einstein, as you probably don’t know him. This portrait hangs in the RS which also houses a magnificent
collection of portraits and archives.
The RS has a Centre for the History of Science and continuously uses objects from its collections for exhibitions.
The reason I have chosen this portrait is the quote: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
If it were not presumptuous I would like to say the same about myself.

4. The original entrance to the South Kensington Museum
Science and Art
1857
Friday, 20 May 2011
There are direct connections between Science and Art right at the foundations of the V&A.
Here is the original entrance to the original building at the back of the Madejski Garden. The reliefs symbolise Science on the left, and Art on the
right, because the museum was originally devoted to both.

5. Science and Art
Chemistry
Architecture
Davy
Bramante
Astronomy
Sculpture
Newton Michelangelo
Mechanics
Watt
Painting
Titian
Friday, 20 May 2011
On the door itself you can see that the 6 panels celebrate 3 pairs of the greatest scientists and artists and put them on equal footing.

6. Science and Art
Ceramic staircase
decorated with symbolic
figures of science and art
Sackler Centre
the V&A's centre for public
learning through creative
design and the arts
Friday, 20 May 2011
Although the museums were split into those for Science, across the road, and here, for Art and Design, connections remain. Not only in the proud
ceramic staircase leading to the National Art Library with its symbolic figures of art and science, but also in the tradition of the V&A’s world leading
and vibrant centre for museum education. I am delighted that this centre applies scientific methods to test and validate its approaches to learning
in a museum environment. This lecture is proof that the V&A takes seriously the possibility that neuroscience can offer insights to education that
are worth considering.

7. 1854
Henry Cole & Richard
Redgrave
Head of the Schools of
Design at South Kensington
“By proper arrangements a Museum may be made in the
highest degree instructional. If it be connected with lectures,
and means are taken to point out its uses and applications, it
becomes elevated from being a mere unintelligible lounge for
idlers into an impressive schoolroom for everybody."
Friday, 20 May 2011
Henry Cole himself was keenly aware of the educational function of the museum. Here is a quote that could not be more to the point:
By proper arrangements a Museum may be made in the highest degree instructional. If it be connected with lectures, and means are taken to point out its uses and applications, it
becomes elevated from being a mere unintelligible lounge for idlers into an impressive schoolroom for everybody."

8. Given that the museum is a “schoolroom for everybody”
What insights can neuroscience contribute?
What goes on in the mind of people who visit the museum?
If we knew - what would it mean for museum education?
Friday, 20 May 2011
In this lecture tonight I want to explore some of the insights that neuroscience might contribute to museum education. The guiding principle for the
selection of such ‘insights’ has been the question, put to me by Morna Hinton, the director of the Sackler Centre:
“What goes on in the mind of people who visit the museum?”

9. Outline of the talk
Things that matter in museum education
• Teaching others and learning from others
• Trust matters
• Intentions: Why a work was created
• Actions: How a work was created
• Authenticity matters
• Value matters
• Expectation matters
• Exploration and exploitation
• Curiosity
Friday, 20 May 2011
Here are the main points that I would like to at least address tonight. They all seem to me to open a window into the mind of the museum visitor.
1. Teaching and learning are profoundly social activities.
2. We don’t learn equally from any teachers, but from those we trust.
3. When we look at a piece in a museum, our brain, quite unbeknown to ourselves, cannot help but ask, why the work was created and how it was
created.
4. When we appreciate objects in a museum, then we take into account, again quite unconsciously, the authenticity of the object, and the
immaterial value of the object, which is regardless of its material value.
5. We see what we expect to see and need guidance in this from experts.
6. We need a balance between exploration of the new and exploitation of the familiar.
7. Finally, I will address the title of this talk - why do we have a curious brain?

10. The museum is like a brain
It stores cultural memories and it processes cultural information
The Brain
the most complex
structure
in the world
The V&A
the greatest and most
comprehensive
treasure house
in the world
4.5 million objects in V&A
Friday, 20 May 2011
Let me start with a metaphor of the museum as a brain of society.
Like in the real brain, most of the work goes on in a hidden world that the visitor hardly ever sees. This includes many specialist staff and many
specialist services, rooms and technical facilities.
The conscious part of the brain can be compared with the public galleries that are on view for the visitor, the place where communication happens
with other beings. In the case of the museum, these other beings may be long dead, but are still present in their works. They are still
communicating with us. This in fact is the miracle of culture. The knowledge of previous generations is not lost but can be built on. Their ideas of
beauty, function and design, shape and feed our own ideas.

11. Human beings are the only species who teach deliberately
Our brain has a natural disposition to
teach and to learn from being taught
Csibra & Gergely, TICS 2009
Not all teaching is formal
V & A Hochhauser Auditorium
V & A Museum Education
Friday, 20 May 2011
Human beings are the only species who teach deliberately. We are born to teach as well as to learn. If the signals are present, then we can’t help
but learn. These signals are social: a direct glance, a pointing finger, a raised voice. They tell the brain to prepare for a message that is relevant
and that deserves attention. What you learn in these informal social situations are general truths, rather then particular facts. In a formal context,
for example, in a lecture, or when reading a label in the museum, you can learn about particular facts, - provided of course that you pay attention!
Parts of your brain may not be convinced that what you hear is relevant.

12. We learn by observing others
• We don’t have to make our own mistakes
Rendell et al. 2010 Science
• We learn from others not only by observing people and interacting
with them but also by observing objects made by them
How can objects teach us?
• WOW - some objects (the way
they are placed) can’t fail to
draw attention
• GETTING INSIDE - objects are
displayed in context so that
learners can perceive the
essence: the why and how
V & A Glass Gallery
Friday, 20 May 2011
Learning is profoundly social. We don’t need to make our own mistakes, we can learn by observing others. We can learn by observing the objects
others designed and manufactured for us. But how can objects signal to our brain that there is a relevant communication that is best attended to?
First, objects can by their features or their placement attract attention willy-nilly. But this is rarely enough. The attention opens a channel for
deeper communication. The museum visitor has become curious: automatically the brain asks, well below our awareness:
Why this object? How was this object made?

13. Social pressures in museum education
We like what others like
Three-year-olds choose novel toys, foods, games, clothes
endorsed by same age, same sex peers
Shutts, Banaji & Spelke, 2009, Dev Sci
Adolescents are even more influenced by peer choices
Friday, 20 May 2011
How do we know if we like an object in the museum? How does the brain compute liking? Many factors enter into this computation, which is far too
complicated to enter our awareness. One factor has been studied in the laboratory and I am sure museum educators have long known about it. We
like what others like. This is true for 3-year olds, but perhaps even more so for adolescents, who are strongly influenced by what their peers like.
As adults too we are strongly influenced by knowing, for example, what a celebrity likes. You may be more independent and dislike another’s
favourites. And there are the few who act as leaders of style and taste. These leaders were very prominent in building the original collections of the
V&A.

14. Trust matters
Lyons, Young & Keil, 2007 PNAS
Friday, 20 May 2011
How do you become a leader of style? For a young child, you just have to be an adult who can be trusted.

15. Learning from a trusted source
Children copy adult’s wasteful strategy in opening puzzle box. They assume adult
must have a good reason: “This is the way to do it”.
She trusts the adult
He doesn’t
Derek Lyons http://bit.ly/g8Z0ug
Friday, 20 May 2011
There is a strange mystery. 3 and 4-year olds copy all the actions, including completely unnecessary silly actions, when made by an adult while
opening a puzzle box to retrieve a small toy. The children go through the motions even when told they should just retrieve the toy without any silly
actions. They go through the motions even when there is a competitor who reaches straight for the toy. This is over-imitation.
Chimpanzees always reach straight for the toy. They are not taken in by the unnecessary actions. Over-imitation is an example of how the human
brain learns from others not just efficient ways to reach a goal, but also inefficient ways of action. These actions are ‘the proper way we do things’.
They are in the design of the object.

16. Trust matters
•Children overimitate because they trust the actions that
they see the adult performing more than they trust their
own senses: the brain is automatically ready to do this.
•Adults do this too. They learn from people they trust.
•Trust has to be earned. It can easily be lost.
•Museums have built up enormous social capital in trust
•This enhances their role and success in teaching
Friday, 20 May 2011
Overimitation is to do with learning from a trusted source. It is a primary tool for cultural transmission.
It is not only children who over-imitate. When we make objects watching experts we often unconsciously adopt their ways of doing things; the way
to achieve the aim can become even more important then the aim itself.
But, this mechanism depends on trust.
Museums embody trust. This trust has been earned through years of work on collecting and showing authentic objects, and on communicating the
outcome of verifiable research. This enhances the museum’s role and success in education.

17. Which is the real Rembrandt?
Once you know - you let go of your liking of the other portrait
‘like a former lover no longer blinded by love’
Martin Kemp, Nature 461 October 2009, p 882 Images Bridgeman Art Library
Friday, 20 May 2011
Trust can be lost when a museum exhibits a fake. As soon as a fake is revealed the museum visitors will cease to like it, even when they did like it
before.

18. Culture shapes what we enjoy looking at
• Our brain is not a camera
Richard Gregory Eye and Brain 1966, 1997
• What matters is not the thing as it appears to our senses
• What matters is what we think a thing really is
• What matters is why a thing was made and how it was made
the object’s history: the intentions of the person who created it
the techniques that were used to make it
• Our likes and dislikes are influenced by our beliefs and our trust in
others telling us about the why and how
Friday, 20 May 2011
How come that we can so quickly like and dislike the same object?
Our brain is not a camera that simply takes in information. This information is the same before and after we change our liking. Instead our brain
puts out information and matches this against the input it receives from the senses. The brain has some preconceived notions about what an
object is and why it might be in the museum.
Our beliefs feed these preconceived notions. We tend to get these beliefs from other people, often without being aware of this, by social contagion.
In the museum we can get beliefs not through the backdoor, but through informed guidance of our senses by curators, guides and the labels they
make. Why and how an object was made and the object’s history.

19. ‘Why it is done’ matters
Beliefs and intentions behind the work
Friday, 20 May 2011
Our brain is constantly searching for evidence about the intentions of other people. When we see a work of art we are influenced by the intention
to create the work even more than by its appearance.

20. There is more to artwork than its current material
nature
• Even for 3-year olds
• They name pictures on the basis of
intent - not shape
• Child will not name lollipop a
balloon even if they look the same
• Because it is meant to be a
lollipop
This is a
lollipop
This is a
balloon
Bloom & Markson 1998 Psych Sci
Friday, 20 May 2011
The appearance of two drawings by 3-year-olds can be almost the same. But, to the child who drew these shapes, there is a world of difference.
The child intending to draw a balloon will not accept it to be called a lollipop and vice versa. The drawing is what it is meant to be, not what it
looks like.

21. Theory of mind: Attributing intentions and beliefs
• The brain is spontaneously taking into account intentions and beliefs
(our own and those of others) without our being aware of it.
• Even when looking at an object in the museum
• Even more so when we observe an artist creating something
• Even more so when creating art ourselves
Individuals with autism
are not able to spontaneously attribute intentions and beliefs
Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985 Cognition
Friday, 20 May 2011
The brain’s sensitivity to intentions is part and parcel of its disposition to attribute intentions, desires and beliefs to other agents. This is quite
spontaneous and does not stop when considering objects that were made by other agents.
We know from the study of autism that in this condition, where the brain develops abnormally, the spontaneous ability to attribute intentions to
others is missing.

22. What is it like not to spontaneously
attribute intentions?
Can autistic children remember their
own intention after they did a drawing?
Can they remember another person’s
intention?
Frith 2008 A very short introduction to Autism OUP
En.wikipedia
Friday, 20 May 2011
Autism teaches us what it is like not to be able to attribute intentions spontaneously.
Here is a brief experiment that asked the question: Can autistic child
lren remember their own intention after they did a drawing? And can they remember another person’s intention after they too did a drawing?

23. Draw one of these airplanes with black pencil
No visible sign of intention
(Happé, Bloom and Frith, unpublished)
Friday, 20 May 2011
This is what the experimenter said: draw one of these airplanes. They were identical except for their colour. However, the child was only given a black pencil.

24. Later, from memory child has to say which
airplane she intended to draw
Child must recall own intention
E.g. the red airplane
Same again when experimenter
did the drawing
Friday, 20 May 2011
Later on the child was asked: which airplane did you draw? There were no visible signs of intention. The intention had to be retrieved from memory.
The same question was also asked about a drawing made by the experimenter. The experimenter indicated her intention by gazing at one of the airplanes.

25. Autistic children have difficulty recalling even their own
intention
21 six- year-old typically-developing children
100
20 eleven-year-old children with autism
%
(Happé, Bloom and Frith, unpublished)
75
50
Autistic
25
Can recall
own
0 intention
Cannot
recall
own
intention
Can recall
adult’s
intention
Autistic
Cannot
recall
adult’s
intention
Friday, 20 May 2011
The results show very clearly that 6-year-old children were well able to recall their own intention, and that of the adult.
This was not the case for the 11-year-old autistic children. And this was not due to general memory failure.
It is hard to imagine what it means not to be able to attribute, monitor and remember your own intentions - or those of other people. The autistic person has
severe problems in social communication. For ordinary people communication is made easy precisely because we take account of intentions, desires and
beliefs. Sometimes this is called having a Theory of Mind. But of course, it is an unconscious process, and not like having a theory at all.

26. ‘How it is done’ matters
Physical actions behind the work
Friday, 20 May 2011
It is not only the invisible intentions that the brain is trying to pick up when perceiving a work of art, but also the physical actions needed to bring
it about.

27. The brain’s mirror system
Rizzolatti & Craighero 2004 Ann Rev Neurosci
Hamilton 2008 QJExp Psych
The brain
spontaneously links
observed and
performed actions
motor output
visual input
Friday, 20 May 2011
An important discovery about brain mechanisms are so-called mirror neurons in the monkey, and mirror systems in the human brain.
The brain spontaneously links observed and performed actions.
This means coding motor output and visual input via the same neurons.

28. The brain’s mirror system links perception and
action
• Mirror neurons fire when we see an action being done by another person
• The same neurons fire when we do the action ourselves
V & A Ceramics Studio
Friday, 20 May 2011
Mirror neurons fire when we see an action being done by another person.
The same neurons fire when we do the action ourselves.
This means there is the opportunity for learning through doing and watching others doing things.

29. The mirror system allows us to align with others
When we see an
emotional expression
we automatically
activate the relevant
face muscles for this
expression
Dimberg 2000 Psych Sci
Friday, 20 May 2011
It is not only actions we mirror, but also emotions. This brings about the spontaneous tendency for groups of people to align themselves with each
other.

30. Reward matters
The brain predicts what is going to happen and
values outcomes accordingly
Unexpected rewards are valued most highly
Schultz & Dickinson, 2000 Ann Rev Neurosci
Friday, 20 May 2011
The brain learns from predictions. It predicts how rewarded it will be by an action. It does this constantly and this is a main engine of learning and
remembering. We are particularly pleased by unexpected rewards. These have high value.

31. Authenticity matters
Friday, 20 May 2011
We now come to an aspect of museum culture where museums hold a sort of monopoly. Even if museum visitors use the many websites of the V&A
extensively, including the wonderful facility that allows you to browse the collections, people expect the real thing to be in the museum when they
visit. I am reminded of bank notes which by themselves are worthless paper, but they have the Bank of England endorsement: ‘I promise to pay the
bearer on demand the sum of Twenty Pounds’. I would guess however, that banks nowadays rank far lower in trust than museums.

32. Authenticity matters - even in early childhood
• 3-year-olds prefer to keep the original
toy they brought in, not the copy
“Because it’s mine”
A ‘copying machine’ presents the identical toy
• 6-year-olds value (in tokens) a spoon
over its copy “Because it once
belonged to Queen Elizabeth”
• More value is seen in hidden and
immaterial property of special objects
Hood & Bloom, 2008 Cognition
Friday, 20 May 2011
An experiment was done in collusion with parents of 3 and 4-year old children. Some of these children had an object they were very attached to
and others did not. They brought these objects into the lab.
The experimenter pretended to have a perfect copying machine. He copied the objects. Then he let the children choose which one they would take
home.
The children who were very attached to the object choose the real object.
Six-year olds also preferred a real object over a copy when it had an association with a special person.

33. www.faberge-exhibition.com/g6_1.html
This gold and diamond snuffbox was
once owned by Herr Bomm of Vienna
Waterhouse read of Jenner’s work and begged
cowpox vaccine material from him. In 1800, "to
convince the faithless" Waterhouse vaccinated his
four children and two servants. The six were then
exposed to smallpox, without ill effect.
Harvard Magazine 2003
This silver snuffbox was a gift from Edward
Jenner to Waterhouse, a Professor at Harvard,
and contained quills impregnated with cowpox
vaccine matter.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Here is an experiment for you to do. You are allowed to take one perfect duplicate away. Would you happy to have the duplicate of the silver box
that belonged to Edward Jenner, the pioneer of smallpox vaccination? I don’t think so. You know the real thing is directly connected with Jenner, but
the copy is not. Concerning the gold box, you might be happy with a duplicate. The original owner does not perhaps mean that much to you, but
gold is gold. I propose that the original silver box signals a higher value than the original gold box.

34. Lack of Authenticity has negative effects
on social behaviour and ethics
These
characters are
not innocent
holiday makers
To catch a thief
Hitchcock 1955
Friday, 20 May 2011
There are also effects from lack of authenticity. And they are very negative. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Hitchcock’s comedy ‘To catch a thief’ are
not what they seem.

35. Lack of Authenticity
People merely wearing fake designer glasses feel
inauthentic. This caused them to cheat more in tests
and to be more cynical about the motives of other
people
Being associated with a counterfeit product increased
dishonesty and cynicism
Gino, Norton & Ariely 2010 Psych.Sci
Friday, 20 May 2011
An experiment was conducted where students at an American University were given either genuine or fake Chloe sunglasses.
While they were wearing them they were given some tests and questionnaires.
The people who wore the fake sunglasses differed in their responses. They were more likely to cheat in tests and more cynical about the motives of
other people when given questionnaires.

36. Experts matter
David Bailey’s Box of Pin-ups 1965
Vidal Sassoon
Friday, 20 May 2011
The brain needs to have information and prior knowledge to interpret the world.
Experts are particularly trusted and can supply the prior knowledge. Here one expert in photography portrays another. Two celebrated stylists of
the Sixtees.

37. Experiment where participants could freely choose pop songs
they did not yet own
When scanned the reward centres of the brain lit up when
they obtained the song they had chosen vs one they had not
chosen
The reward centres lit up even more when the chosen song
was one that experts valued more highly
Campbell-Meiklejohn et al. 2010 Curr Biol
Friday, 20 May 2011
In this experiment participants were presented with pairs of pop songs and always choose one that they would like to take away. When they got the
song they wanted they were of course pleased and this was reflected in brain activity. But brain activity was much enhanced when (trumped-up) DJ
experts agreed with their choice, and much reduced when they disagreed.

38. The agreement of experts is rewarding
Reward
areas
activated
when you
get what
you want
Campbell-Meiklejohn et al. 2010 Curr Biol
Reward
areas
activated
when
people
agree with
your choice
Friday, 20 May 2011
Here are some more details of the experiment. Presumably you are pleased when museum experts choose the objects that you like too. The idea
for museum experts to contrast objects of bad taste with objects of good taste objects would give a similar amount of pleasure to you if you
agreed. Exactly this idea was tried by Henry Cole with his cabinet of horrors. This has been explored by Christopher Grayling in the first Henry Cole
lecture (V&A publ. 2010): http://bit.ly/jk0kmf

39. Prior knowledge matters
Gregory 1997 Phil Trans RSoc Lond B
Friday, 20 May 2011
The brain is not a camera, but needs prior knowledge to interpret the world.

40. Our sensory brain needs to learn about value
• No crowd gathered. Nobody stayed
for whole performance, they lacked
the right expectation
Joshua Bell playing at subway in
Washington DC
• Many would have paid $$$$$ to
listen in concert hall - having the
right expectation
• Value includes deeper things behind
art and its production
Paul Bloom, 2010 How pleasure works. NY Norton
Advert for Joshua Bell playing
concert in Washington DC
Friday, 20 May 2011
A strange experiment was conducted at a Subway Station in Washington. The famous violinist Joshua Bell was persuaded to turn up one morning
and play. No crowd gathered. Not many coins were given. But many of the commuters who did not stay to listen would have paid hundreds of
dollars to hear Bell play in concert.
They would have heard the same violinist and the same piece. But they could not value the performance without the knowledge.

41. Our brain is not like a camera
• We perceive what we know. We guess, and send out probes to test our
prediction. Unconsciously.
• When our prediction turns out to be wrong, we get interested
• We learn from prediction errors
• We need some knowledge to start with
Kersten et al. 2004 Ann Rev Psych
Friday, 20 May 2011
The idea that prediction errors are the critical ingredient in learning continues to gather support.

42. Top down expectations control what we see
controlling neurons process top-down expectations
driving neurons process
bottom-up information
Two kinds of neural systems
Chris Frith Making up the Mind 2007 Blackwell
Friday, 20 May 2011
This is a plausible speculation about two major systems in the brain. I am very keen on this contrast that my husband, Chris Frith, has elaborated
in his book. I use it a lot in my talks when to give some rough sketch of how it is possible to perceive reality and yet not hallucinate.

43. What is this? We don’t see if we don’t know
Friday, 20 May 2011

44. A cow
Friday, 20 May 2011

45. Now you know what it is - a cow
Friday, 20 May 2011

46. Do you know what these are?
Friday, 20 May 2011
Here is another example of this circular process from perception to knowledge and back to perception.

47. Two male faces
Friday, 20 May 2011

48. Can you recognise them already?
Friday, 20 May 2011

49. Prince Albert
Friday, 20 May 2011
Henry Cole

50. You can now recognise them easily
Friday, 20 May 2011

51. What about the curious brain?
Friday, 20 May 2011
Finally, what is curiosity? Is it a good thing?

52. Curiosity lights up reward centres in the brain
You will pay token for answer
to quiz question
Curiosity is linked to reward
value of information
And enhances learning from
new information
Brain regions showing higher activity to questions that arouse curiosity
These regions are associated with reward and connect to regions which are
crucial to learning and remembering new information
Kang, Hsu, Krajbich, Loewenstein,McCLure, Wang & Camerer, 2009 Psych Sci
Friday, 20 May 2011
You are prepared to pay for information if you are sufficiently curious.

53. Wide eyed and curious
V&A brooch ca 1800
Pupil size can reveal how curious you are
Friday, 20 May 2011
Curiosity is not only visible in the brain. But Kang and colleagues also showed that the size of the pupil is an index of curiosity.

54. The most curious showed the biggest response
when they could see the answer to a question they did not know
They also remembered the answer
Time in secs
Kang, Hsu, Krajbich, Loewenstein,McCLure, Wang & Camerer, 2009 Psych Sci
Friday, 20 May 2011
There was a quiz game. The most curious people showed the biggest response in their pupil size, when they could see the answer to a question
they did not know. The interesting thing is that they also later remembered the answer better for just those quiz questions they were curious
about.

55. Explore vs exploit
People exploit when they consistently choose the same option,
believing it yields the highest rewards;
they explore if they try new options, looking for something better.
Sutton & Barto 1998 Reinforcement Learning MIT Press
Friday, 20 May 2011
Being curious leads us to explore. The counterpoint is to exploit.

56. Not idle curiosity - but harvesting resources
Imagine you and your tribe find a fruit tree.
Hurray. You stay and eat. But, when is it
time to move on?
Some members of the tribe might be more
inclined to explore than others. There is a
cost to exploring.
Exploiting is governed by reward systems
of the brain
Exploring is governed by controlling and
planning systems of the brain
Friday, 20 May 2011
Curiosity is not idle. It has an evolutionary function in foraging.
In the museum: Explore.
Then familiarise yourself
with the place you found.
After a while you need to
go off exploring again.

57. The exploring brain
Controlling neurons are active
Explore = red
Exploit = blue
Frontopolar Cortex
Explore = red
Exploit = blue
Intraparietal cortex
Daw, O’Doherty, Dayan, Seymour, Dolan, Nature, 2006
Friday, 20 May 2011
Exploration means that the controlling neurons in the frontal and parietal parts of the brain are active.
Exploitation has a reverse effect and activity in these regions of the brain decreases.

58. Boredom
• If we perform a task very out of
line with the level of our skill
we are bored
• Boredom signals that some more
rewarding task exists
• The right response is to explore
V& A Watercolour J E Millais ca 1864
Friday, 20 May 2011
Perhaps the time has come for me to sense that you might get as bored as the girl in the picture who is sitting through her ‘second sermon’.
There needs to be a balance between exploration and exploitation. Boredoam is a signal that we should get ready to explore.

59. What insights from neuroscience for
museum education?
• Learning from others includes learning from objects in the
museum
• They feed the curious brain
• We attend to why and how of objects
• The curious brain propels us to explore
• We are guided in our exploration by
• Trust
• Value
• Authenticity
• Prior Knowledge
Friday, 20 May 2011
Summary

60. Where are inspiration and wonder freely on offer?
in the museum
in science
Thanks to the Royal Society and the V&A
Thank you for listening
Friday, 20 May 2011