Curiosity enhances incidental object encoding in 8-month-old infants

•Curiosity induced by uncertainty enhances learning of unrelated information in 8-month-old infants.•8-month-old infants do not seek resolution of curiosity over experiencing novelty.•This is the first empirical study to explore how states of curiosity affect object encoding in infants and the role of curiosity resolution in this process.•Our results suggest that curiosity increases the state of arousal, facilitating learning in infants.•Overall, we suggest curiosity changes in infants from a broader state of arousal to more goal-directed information seeking in older children and adults.