Intellectual curiosity

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Intellectual curiosity (also called epistemic curiosity) is curiosity that leads to an acquisition of general knowledge. It can include curiosity about such things as what objects are composed of, the underlying mechanisms of systems, mathematical relationships, languages, social norms, and history. It can be differentiated from another type of curiosity that does not lead to the acquisition of general knowledge, such as curiosity about the intimate secrets of other people. It is a facet of openness to experience in the Five Factor Model used to describe human personalities. [1] It is similar to need for cognition and typical intellectual engagement.

Contents

History

In antiquity, the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote about humans' innate love of learning:

So great is our innate love of learning and of knowledge that no one can doubt that man's nature is strongly attracted to these things even without the lure of any profit. For my part, I believe Homer had something of this sort in view in his imaginary account of the songs of the Sirens. Apparently, it was not the sweetness of their voices or the novelty and diversity of their songs, but their professions of knowledge that used to attract the passing voyagers; it was the passion for learning that kept men rooted to the Sirens' rocky shores.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, [2]

In 1738, the Scottish philosopher David Hume differentiated intellectual curiosity from a more primitive form of curiosity:

The same theory, that accounts for the love of truth in mathematics and algebra, may be extended to morals, politics, natural philosophy, and other studies, where we consider not the other abstract relations of ideas, but their real connexions and existence. But besides the love of knowledge, which displays itself in the sciences, there is a certain curiosity implanted in human nature, which is a passion derived from a quite different principle. Some people have an insatiable desire of knowing the actions and circumstances of their neighbors, though their interest be no way concerned in them, and they must entirely depend on others for their information; in which case, there is no room for study or application. Let us search for the reason of this phenomenon.

David Hume, A treatise of human nature (p. 453), [3]

Later, in 1954, Berlyne differentiated it into perceptual curiosity and epistemic curiosity, [4] and in 2004 a psychometric scale to assess epistemic and perceptual curiosity was developed. [5]

Intellectual development in children

Humans seem to be born with intellectual curiosity, but depending on how parents react to questions from their children, intellectual curiosity might be increased or decreased. [6] Parents that always react negatively to questions asked by their children, are discouraging them from asking questions, and that is likely to make them less curious. On the other hand, parents that always react positively to questions asked by their children, are encouraging them to ask questions, and that is likely to make them more curious.

Academic performance

Intellectual curiosity has been positively correlated with academic performance (0.20), together with general intelligence (0.35) and conscientiousness (0.20). [7]

Scientific progress

Toby E. Huff has argued that the European civilization had a high level of intellectual curiosity during the scientific revolution. [8] He also argues that other civilizations have had a high level of intellectual curiosity in their most progressive stages.

Neurobiological basis

The temporal lobe is involved in understanding. [9] Intellectual curiosity might be regarded as the trait that motivates growth of understanding in the temporal lobe. Motivation is effectuated by the neurotransmitter dopamine [10]

Similarity to other concepts

The measures of Need for cognition (NFC) and Typical intellectual engagement (TIE) are found to be sufficiently correlated (.78) that they are argued to be measuring essentially the same trait. [11] Keeping that in mind, measures of intellectual curiosity, NFC and TIE were found to be correlated (on average with a coefficient of .57), substantiating the supposition of their similarity. [12]

Related Research Articles

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Closure or need for closure (NFC), used interchangeably with need for cognitive closure (NFCC), are social psychological terms that describe an individual's desire for a clear, firm answer or peaceful resolution to a question or problem to avert ambiguity.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparative psychology</span> Discipline of psychology dedicated to the study of non-human animal behavior

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curiosity</span> Quality related to inquisitive thinking

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The cognitive revolution was an intellectual movement that began in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes. It later became known collectively as cognitive science. The relevant areas of interchange were between the fields of psychology, linguistics, computer science, anthropology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The approaches used were developed within the then-nascent fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, and neuroscience. In the 1960s, the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies and the Center for Human Information Processing at the University of California, San Diego were influential in developing the academic study of cognitive science. By the early 1970s, the cognitive movement had surpassed behaviorism as a psychological paradigm. Furthermore, by the early 1980s the cognitive approach had become the dominant line of research inquiry across most branches in the field of psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General knowledge</span> Type of information

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary educational psychology</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Need for cognition</span> Psychology concept

The need for cognition (NFC), in psychology, is a personality variable reflecting the extent to which individuals are inclined towards effortful cognitive activities.

Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions: active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety (adventurousness), intellectual curiosity, and challenging authority. A great deal of psychometric research has demonstrated that these facets or qualities are significantly correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basic science (psychology)</span> Subdisciplines within psychology

Some of the research that is conducted in the field of psychology is more "fundamental" than the research conducted in the applied psychological disciplines, and does not necessarily have a direct application. The subdisciplines within psychology that can be thought to reflect a basic-science orientation include biological psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and so on. Research in these subdisciplines is characterized by methodological rigor. The concern of psychology as a basic science is in understanding the laws and processes that underlie behavior, cognition, and emotion. Psychology as a basic science provides a foundation for applied psychology. Applied psychology, by contrast, involves the application of psychological principles and theories yielded up by the basic psychological sciences; these applications are aimed at overcoming problems or promoting well-being in areas such as mental and physical health and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embodied cognition</span> Interdisciplinary theory

Embodied cognition is the theory that many features of cognition, whether human or otherwise, are shaped by aspects of an organism's entire body. Sensory and motor systems are seen as fundamentally integrated with cognitive processing. The cognitive features include high-level mental constructs and performance on various cognitive tasks. The bodily aspects involve the motor system, the perceptual system, the bodily interactions with the environment (situatedness), and the assumptions about the world built into the organism's functional structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typical intellectual engagement</span>

Typical intellectual engagement (TIE) is a personality construct referring to a person's enjoyment of intellectually demanding activities. TIE was developed to identify aspects of personality most closely related to intelligence and knowledge and measures a person's typical performance in intellectual domains rather than their maximal performance. TIE is moderately positively associated with crystallized intelligence, and with general knowledge, and predicts academic performance. TIE is hard to distinguish from the earlier construct need for cognition and is positively correlated with openness to experience.

Epistemic motivation is the desire to develop and maintain a rich and thorough understanding of a situation, utilizing one's beliefs towards knowledge and the process of building knowledge. A learner's motivation towards knowledge as an object influences their knowledge acquisition. In interpersonal relations, epistemic motivation is the desire to process information thoroughly, and thus grasp the meaning behind other people's emotions. In group settings, epistemic motivation can be defined as participants' willingness to expend effort to achieve a thorough, rich, and accurate understanding of the world, including the group task, or decision problem at hand, and the degree to which group members tend to systematically process and disseminate information.

Epistemic insight encompasses curiosity, critical thinking and understanding concerning the nature of knowledge. The construct is chiefly used in educational contexts. It is associated with research and articles that seek or discuss ways to advance student understanding of knowledge and the interdependencies of disciplines across subjects and in real world contexts.

References

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  3. Selby-Bigge, David Hume. Ed. by L. A. (1987). A treatise of human nature (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon. ISBN   978-0-19-824588-9.
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  8. Huff, Toby E. (2010). Intellectual curiosity and the scientific revolution a global perspective (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-17052-9.[ page needed ]
  9. Smith; Kosslyn (2007). Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 21, 194–199, 349.
  10. Costa, Vincent D; Tran, Valery L; Turchi, Janita; Averbeck, Bruno B (2014). "Dopamine modulates novelty seeking behavior during decision making". Behavioral Neuroscience. 128 (5): 556–66. doi:10.1037/a0037128. PMC   5861725 . PMID   24911320.
  11. Woo, Sang Eun; Harms, Peter D; Kuncel, Nathan R (2007). "Integrating personality and intelligence: Typical intellectual engagement and need for cognition". Personality and Individual Differences. 43 (6): 1635–9. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.04.022.
  12. Mussel, Patrick (2010). "Epistemic curiosity and related constructs: Lacking evidence of discriminant validity". ScienceDirect. 49 (5): 506–510. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.05.014.