Here’s the TRIQ: The Tromsø Interest Questionnaire Based on the Four-Phase Model of Interest Development

Tove I Dahl,Ellen Nierenberg

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.716543

Tove I Dahl, Ellen Nierenberg

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.716543

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Abstract

The Tromsø Interest Questionnaire (TRIQ) is the first suite of self-report subscales designed for focused investigations on how interest is experienced in relation to Hidi and Renninger’s four-phase model of interest development. In response to the plethora of varied interest measures that already exist in terms of theoretical grounding, form, and tested quality, the TRIQ subscales were designed with a consistent form to measure general interest, situation dependence, positive affect, competence level, competence aspirations, meaningfulness, and self-regulation answered in relation to some object of interest. Two studies testing the subscales’ performance using different objects of interest (self-chosen “object-general,” and prespecified “object-specific”) provide evidence of the subscales’ internal consistency, temporal reliability, and phase-distinguishing validity. Patterns across the two studies demonstrate that the TRIQ is a sufficiently reliable and valid domain-tailorable tool that is particularly effective at distinguishing phase 1 (triggered situational) from phase 4 (well-developed individual) interest. The findings raise interesting questions for further investigation about the distinction and distance between all interest phases, the push-pull factors that influence how interests evolve and additional subscales to add to the suite.

Highlights

We know it when we feel it, that feeling of interest in something
We found that though the concepts these other tools touch on do overlap with aspects of the four-phase model of interest development, there is considerable variation among them, making none of them perfect matches for testing the full four-phase model—either alone or in combination with each other
Phase Description and Interest matched with the relevant phase interest description (Match) To understand how well each interest phase description worked for stimulating object of interest examples and how well participant experience of those objects of interests fit with the interest phase description, mean scores were calculated for each

Summary

Introduction

We know it when we feel it, that feeling of interest in something. Sometimes the feeling hits us for the first time when we are introduced to that object or event in some attention-grabbing way, and sometimes that feeling is what drives us to pursue the interest more on our own. Interest catches and holds our attention (Hidi and Baird, 1986) and facilitates emotionally engaged interactions with objects of interest–critical activities for both initiating and sustaining learning over time (e.g., Harackiewicz et al, 2008). Affective states, are perceptional and emotional processes that help prime us to focus on particular kinds of stimuli in involuntary physiological, preattentive ways that can vary in intensity and duration, and uniquely influence attention, behavior, and memory of the Tromsø Interest Questionnaire stimuli involved (Dolan, 2002; Panksepp, 2003; Izard, 2011)— serving, in a sense, as “relevance detectors” (Scherer, 2005)

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Discussion

Conclusion