Browsing by Subject "curiosity"
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(2023)Despite that curiosity is beneficial for learning, researchers found that it is declining among adolescents. The aim of this thesis is to identify the prominent environment facilitators for youths’ curiosity from an Ecological perspective that includes both family and school. To further understand the developmental effects, two age cohorts (10-year-old and 15-year-old) were compared. In total, 5482 Finnish students (3034 aged 10, 2448 aged 15) from the OECD Survey on Social-emotional Skills were chosen and their family and school factors related to basic psychological needs were surveyed (autonomy, competence, relatedness). Using Complex Two-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling, results demonstrated that (1) parents’ criterion-referenced evaluation, relations with both parents and teachers were associated with youths’ curiosity, whereas autonomy support was not; (2) parents’ criterion-referenced evaluation played the primary role in younger youths’ curiosity, but its effect was much smaller in the elder cohort; and (3) relations with teachers was a vital driving factor for elder youths’ curiosity, though its effect was weaker on the younger. Findings extend the literature by identifying the prominent need-based supporting factors in different age periods for youths’ curiosity facilitation.
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(2024)Objectives. Making decisions requires the ability to seek out and use reliable information. Curiosity, as an intrinsic desire to know, is believed to be an important motivation for information seeking. Curiosity is not only a personality trait that reflects the tendency to experience new but also a cognitive state that arises from the information gap. The reward learning framework, which underscores the rewarding value of information, provides a fresh theoretical perspective for understanding curiosity. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of curiosity in information-seeking process. Specifically, it aims to examine how curiosity influences information-seeking behaviour and eye movements, and to explore the relationship between trait and state curiosity within this context. Methods. The sample comprised 52 participants who took part in a laboratory experiment and an online survey. The experiment involved a reading-based decision-making task, in which participants were required to read health-related arguments from three categories: scientific relevant (SR), scientific irrelevant (SI), and non-scientific relevant (NR). Eye movements were recorded during reading, while state curiosity was self-reported after each argument. In the survey session, participants’ trait curiosity levels were measured using the Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale Revised (5DCR). Data preparation and analysis was conducted using R software. Statistical analyses included Spearman’s correlation, as well as linear and generalized linear mixed-effects models. Results and conclusions. State curiosity was associated with total fixation duration, but the effects interacted with information quality. For high quality (SR) arguments, the total fixation duration was overall longer regardless of state curiosity levels, whereas for low quality (SI and NR) arguments, total fixation duration increased with higher levels of state curiosity. As for the effects of trait curiosity, overt social curiosity was associated with more persistent information-seeking style, while stress tolerance was related to a quicker and more decisive reader. In addition, thrill-seeking tendency exhibited a negative effect on state curiosity during health-related decision-making. Overall, this study provides new insights into the role of curiosity in information-seeking process, and indicates the importance of curiosity in supporting public evidence-based decision-making.
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