Conclusion: Understanding Leadership and Discovery

Abstract

One of the very first traits observed in developing human infants is curiosity, a drive to explore their surroundings, and a closely related needcalled effectance motivation-to have an impact or effect on those surroundings. In fact, one of the earliest measures of cognitive capacity is an infant’s preference for novelty. Infants who years later get higher scores on traditional IQ tests more quickly habituate to, that is, get used to, visually displayed geometric shapes and rapidly turn their attention to novel displays. Thus starting at a very early age, curiosity drives exploration in an effort to discover, and also shape, what is new.