State Of Curiosity Research Articles

Understanding Children's Curiosity and Exploration through the Lenses of Lewin's Field Theory: On Developing an Appraisal Framework

Curiosity as a motivational force is often linked with knowledge acquisition. Adults are important mediators to motivate children's curiosity and exploration, and their foremost task is to understand the child. This article proposes to use Kurt Lewin's field theory as a framework to appraise children's momentary state of curiosity and exploratory behavior. Taking a dynamic view of child-environment interaction, this framework is characterized by a micro level process analysis. Two levels of analysis: child-stimulus situation and child-stimulus-adult situation are discussed. Adult's sensitivity to the child's perspective is emphasized. The proposed framework argues that a parent can be a source of barrier in hindering a child's exploration or a facilitator to remove barriers.

Children's motivation analysis test (CMAT): An experimental manipulation of curiosity and boredom

The present study investigated the influence of manipulating the states of curiosity and boredom on the 10 scales of the Children's Motivation Analysis Test (CMAT). The CMAT is a multidimensional objective (T-data) instrument measuring several important dynamic motivation traits among primary school children. The CMAT was administered to 202 grade 6 and 7 children, pre- and post-exposure to either curiosity, boredom, or control (neutral) conditions. Scores on the Unintegrated Curiosity scale of the CMAT increased for the children in the Curiosity condition. For children in the Boredom condition, Unintegrated Pugnacity, Unintegrated and Integrated Narcism scores increased in response to the mildly aversive experimental manipulation. Evidently, a number of the dynamic traits measured in the CMAT are sensitive to situational stimuli as hypothesized in the dynamic calculus theory of motivation.