An Experimental Study of Curiosity in Children

Mittman, Leon R.; Terrell, Glenn

doi:10.2307/1126510

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While the exact origin and developmental course of EC is unclear, the degree to which each type of curiosity is experienced and behaviorally expressed is theorized to vary according to individual differences in relatively stable I‐ and D‐ type EC personality traits (Litman, Collins, & Spielberger, ). The relevant dispositional tendencies of EC are theorized to begin to manifest in early childhood (Berlyne & Frommer, ; Minuchin, ; Mittman & Terrell, ). Among adults, individual differences in trait I‐ and D‐type EC are assessed using the I/D scales—two 5‐item self‐report instruments designed to measure levels of the experience and expression of each kind of EC (Litman, ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Epistemic Curiosity in Young Children

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the desire to obtain new knowledge capable of either producing positive experiences of intellectual interest (I-type) or of reducing undesirable conditions of informational deprivation (D-type). Although researchers acknowledge that there are individual differences in young children's epistemic curiosity, there are no existing measures to assess the I-and D-type constructs of EC in early childhood. The aim of this study was to develop and validate parent-report scales that reliably assessed early expressions of I-and D-type EC in young children. To develop the I/D-Young Children (I/D-YC) scales, 16 potential items were administered to 316 parents of children aged 3 to 8. These items were adaptations of an existing adult self-report measure of EC as well as newly developed items. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a 10-item 2-factor (5 I-type, 5 D-type) model had the best fit. Construct validity analyses and psychometric data indicated that our newly developed I/D-YC scales are valid and reliable measures of individual differences in early expressions of I-and D-type EC.Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the desire for new information that motivates knowledge acquisition and exploratory behaviour (Berlyne, 1954). EC can stimulate positive feelings of intellectual interest associated with the anticipation of learning new knowledge (I-type) or reduce unpleasant experiences of uncertainty, which are associated with feeling deprived of information (Berlyne, 1954;Litman, 2005). I-type EC is associated with novelty seeking behaviour and the intrinsic joy of new

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Epistemic Curiosity in Young Children

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Deprivation curiosity can be a powerful motivator in the classroom. Mittman and Terrell (1964) divided young students into three groups to perform a task which required them to join some dots to create a drawing. The first group figured out what the drawing was only after joining 30 dots (high curiosity), the second after 9 (moderate curiosity), and the third knew what the drawing was before they began joining the dots (low curiosity).…”

Section: Deprivation-type Curiositymentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Curiosity to Improve Learning Outcomes in Schools

Singh

Manjaly

2022

SAGE Open

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite a high primary school enrollment in India, the overall learning levels have been low, and the dropout level in secondary school and beyond has been high. One reason for low learning levels and high drop-out rates is the student’s lack of motivation to learn in the classroom. We suggest that curiosity may be a useful tool to improve student motivation. We look at some important variables that have been found to affect curiosity in the classroom: self-determination needs, information relevance, coherence, concreteness, ease of comprehension, fantasy, belief about interest malleability, and information gap. Finally, we suggest ways to incorporate them in the classroom to improve student motivation.

show abstract

“…definition of epistemic curiosity. The technique was based on that ofMittman & Terrell (1964), with modifications introduced in view of the difference in age of the subjects.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Components of Curiosity: Berlyne Reconsidered

Greenberger

Woldman

Yourshaw

1967

British J of Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Berlyne has found that collative stimuli—stimuli with the attributes of complexity, incongruity, or ambiguity, among others—attract longer visual exploration than their less perplexing counterparts. He has postulated a curiosity motive to account for the finding; this paper suggests an alternative explanation of some of his results. The first of two experiments evaluates whether viewing time allotted to collative stimuli is increased by prior curiosity‐arousal. The second evaluates whether a ‘set to remember’ also increases viewing of collative stimuli. Results indicate (a) that both experimental conditions elevate attention to collative stimuli, and to approximately the same extent; but (b) that curiosity‐arousal particularly elevates attention to incongruous stimuli, whereas, a ‘set to remember’ increases attention to complex stimuli. Control subjects given instructions patterned after Berlyne's seem to exhibit a self‐induced remembering set. This emphasizes the need to separate the effects due to curiosity from those due to a remembering orientation.

show abstract

An Experimental Study of Curiosity in Children

Cited by 17 publications

References 12 publications

Measuring Epistemic Curiosity in Young Children

Measuring Epistemic Curiosity in Young Children

Using Curiosity to Improve Learning Outcomes in Schools

Components of Curiosity: Berlyne Reconsidered

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About