Novelty Learners and Independent Thinking

"It's the thing that doesn't fit that's the most interesting..." - Richard Feynman

Novelty is not just fad or a learning knick knack. Novelty is the thing that doesn't fit, and if we are active learners, novelty is new information that can make us think about information in a different way so that we form new associations about what we know. Novelty-seeking in school children is usually seen as a negative ADD-type quality, but it may just reflect more autonomous and intrinsically-motivated learners. These are children (or adults) who may prefer to decide knowledge and patterns for themselves.

The brain areas associated with novelty-learning (or super learning as its described in the paper) are similar to the ones seen with learning by insight (Aha!).

Novelty Paper