Deprivation or Interest-Type Curiosity and Exploratory Behaviour in Humans: Are they Inherently Cognitive and Implicate Curiosity-Induced Teaching

Abstract

The human cognitive architecture appears to be designed to resist uncertainty and doubt. In any new experience that appears to be incongruous to what one is already familiar with, the discrepancy sets into motion the desire to resist and overcome the uncertainty.1 The incongruity induces a heightened state of arousal in the central nervous system, which sets into motion exploratory behavior aimed at reducing the doubt or the uncertainty. As one looks for the needed information through exploration in order to reduce the tension between the innate feeling of knowing, and the reality of doubt, the heightened arousal begins to reduce. It is in this respect that Berlyne1 sees arousal, precipitated by deprivation-induced curiosity, as reinforcing in a similar way as food becomes reinforcing for the hungry person. This reduction of doubt, psychologically, becomes a survival value, and hence, essentially it has inner-directedness. The literature on human curiosity distinguishes between two types of human curiosity: a) perceptual and b) epistemic. The former is typically induced by the senses in a situation of incongruity, such as in a class, and all of a sudden, there is loud noise at the back of the class. All those in the class, would turn to that direction seeking for more information. This curiosity is caused by external stimuli. The latter, epistemic, on the other hand, is more cognitive. It is induced by internal stimuli precipitated cognitive dissonance. It is epistemic curiosity that is most significantly connected to human cognition. The connection between epistemic curiosity and human cognition lies in the fact that mental thoughts of ambiguity affect not just the direction of human thought, but also the intensity of the behavior to resolve the incongruity and ambiguity. This is akin to what Piaget would refer to as disequilibrium. To be able to adapt to one’s environment, the mental disequilibrium would have to be resolved. The disequilibrium between cognition and doubt in people’s experience precipitates feelings of knowing. This feelings-of-knowing in people’s long-term memory stimulates the notion in people to have access to information and hence smaller knowledge gaps. Thus, the smaller the knowledge gaps, the more the intensity of arousal towards exploratory behavior. On the other hand, the higher the perception of knowledge gaps (as in people with little knowledge) the less the intensity of arousal.