When
Janet Metcalfe, Professor, Psychology
Columbia University
A metacognitive model of curiosity
Abstract: It is proposed that one kind of curiosity—which we call Curiosity 1—can be understood in terms of the Region of Proximal Learning (RPL) framework—a metacognitive framework that underpins motivation to learn. This framework proposes that people feel most curious when they feel they are on the verge of knowing or understanding. The processes, conditions, and outcomes specified by the RPL view of curiosity will be reviewed along with several lines of relevant evidence including (1) differences in the conditions under which experts and novices seek information or, alternatively, mind wander, (2) experiments investigating people's choices of whether to study materials for which they have high versus low feelings of knowing, (3) results related to people's engagement with corrections to errors made with high confidence, and (4) curiosity, attentional, EEG, and learning data related to the tip-of-the-tongue state. In addition to Curiosity 1, however, we also propose that there is a second kind of curiosity, which we call Curiosity 2. As will be discussed, Curiosity 2 is based on different and sometimes even opposing cognitive/motivational principles from those in evidence for Curiosity 1. The conflation of Curiosity 1 and Curiosity 2 has resulted in considerable confusion in the literature.
ZOOM: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/82663057302
Password: Cogs595