Curiosity and Motivation-to-Learn

Kate Borowske

Curiosity is associated with scientic discovery, idle

gossip, exploration of our earth and the universe, interest in the supernatural, puzzles, spectator sports, and
murder mysteries. If youve ever been pulled into the
drama of a soap opera you didnt really want to watch
(but will Todd and Blair get back together?), stayed
until the end of a football game that was, actually, kind
of boring, or read a mystery that wasnt really that good,
you can blame it on curiosity.
We generally think of curiosity as a favorable trait.
Aristotle and Cicero equated it with a passion for
learning. Since the last half of the twentieth century,
educators have recognized that curiosity is a signicant
motivating factor in student learning. But you may have
also heard what it did to the cat.

rah, couldnt resist a peek, and was turned into a pillar

of salt. In Greek mythology, when Pandora opened
the box, she released Evil, Sickness, and Unhappiness.
Early religious thinkers equated curiosity with a lust for
knowledge that only God had a right to possess. The
Confessions of St. Augustine are thought to have been at
least partially responsible for this view.1
For pleasure pursues objects that are beautiful, melodious, fragrant, savory, soft. But curiosity, seeking new
experiences, will even seek out the contrary of these, not
with the purpose of experiencing the discomfort that
often accompanies them, but out of a passion for experimenting and knowledge. This malady of curiosity is
the reason for all those strange sights exhibited in the
theater. It is also the reason why we proceed to search
out the secret powers of naturethose which have
nothing to do with our destinywhich do not prot
us to know about, and concerning which men desire
to know only for the sake of knowing. And it is with
this same motive of perverted curiosity for knowledge
that we consult the magical arts.2

Curiosityis insubordination in its purest form.from

Bend Sinister, by Vladimir Nabokov
Eve was told not to eat the apple, did so, and was banished from Eden. Lots wife was told not to look back
on the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomor-

Kate Borowske is Reference and Instruction Librarian at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, email:
kborowske@hamline.edu.
346

Curiosity and Motivation-to-Learn

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the rst passion
and the last Samuel Johnson
The religious condemnation of curiosity was challenged by Sir Francis Bacon when he published his
Advancement of Learning in 1605. Bacon, who is also
credited with the development of the scientic method, argued that knowledge can be used to improve
both mans moral state and the human condition.3
(Evidently the Catholic Church at that time didnt
agree, because The Advancement of Learning was placed
on the Catholic Churchs Index of Prohibited Books).
In 1890, William James published The Principles
of Psychology, which would become a classic in the
eld. James described two types of curiosity. The rst
is an instinctual or emotional response, in which attention is aroused by seeing something new. You may
have observed animals faced with an unfamiliar object: they approach to explore it, retreat because theyre
not sure whether its safe, approach againit could
be foodretreat, approach again, and so on. Their
willingness to explore the unfamiliar results in their
becoming more knowledgeable about their surroundings. But they are somewhat fearful because exploring
the unfamiliar can just as easily lead to danger. So,
curiosity may lead to exploration, but it also creates
anxiety. The other type of curiosity James described is
a scientic curiosity and metaphysical wonder in
which the brain responds to an inconsistency or a gap
in its knowledge, just as the musical brain responds to
a discord in what it hears.4
In the early twentieth century, scientists approached curiosity as one of the drives, along with
hunger, thirst, and sex. But the research took a new
direction with the studies of Daniel Berlyne. His research led him, similarly to James, to divide curiosity
into two types: diversive and specic. Diversive curiosity is a general tendency for a person to seek novelty,
take risks, and search for adventure. Specic curiosity
is a tendency to investigate a specic object or problem
in order to understand it. Berlyne further determined
that curiosity can be aroused by external stimuli with
the following characteristics:
Complexity
Novelty
Uncertainty
Conict
The level of stimulation is signicant: if it is too
low, there will be no motivation to explore; if it is too

347
Figure 1. Days Zone of Curiosity5

high, it will result in anxiety; if it is just right, it will

result in exploratory behavior. The latter was described
by Day, a colleague of Berlynes, as the Zone of Curiosity. See Figure 1.
Just out of curiosity, do we have a Plan B?Nathan Lane
as Preed in Titan A.E.
Loewenstein noted that curiosity occupies a critical
position at the crossroads of cognition and motivation6 and that educators know much more about
educating motivated students than they do about
motivating them in the rst place.7 He synthesized
a number of other theories on curiosity to create what
he called the information-gap perspective. This states
that, in order for curiosity to be present, the student
must already possess some level of knowledge. Then,
to stimulate curiosity, it is necessary to make students aware of manageable gaps in their knowledge.
If the gap between the students current knowledge
and their desired level of knowledge is perceived to
be too large, closing the gap will seem overwhelming
and will discourage learning. If this gap is perceived
to be too small, it will seem not worth the eort to
pursue.8 Burns and Gentry state that identication
of manageable knowledge gaps that complement the
natural curiosity in a learner, combined with explicit
connections to the learners value system, will generate
tension-to-learn in the learner.9
In the early days of the web, advertisers eager to
take advantage of the medium were faced with the
question, How do we get them to click on our ad?
Menon and Soman conducted a study of the eectiveApril 710, 2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota

348
ness of a web advertising strategy using curiosity to
stimulate interest. Following are their recommendations:
Arouse curiosity by demonstrating a gap in the
consumers knowledge
Provide just enough information to make them
want to resolve their curiosity
Give consumers time to try to resolve their
curiosity on their own10
For example, there is a currently an advertising
campaign on the web for the broadband telephone
company, Vonage. Each of the ads is animated and uses
simple, bold images and text. The rst thing that comes
into view on one of the ads is an attractive, somewhat
abstract map of the United States with animated dotted
lines that start at one point and connect to another and
appear and disappear. Next, the phrase, Nice move
appears, followed by a pause, then, Keep your phone
number and area code followed by Wherever you go,
nationwide. Finally, the invitation to See for yourself
appears. This is a link to their home page and more
information on their service.
Museums also need to attract the attention of visitors. They are informal learning environments where
attendance is not (usually) required and museum personnel can not directly control what visitors do once
they enter. In the late 1970s, researchers examined
the eectiveness of an exhibit on the Ice Age at the
Smithsonian. They observed and interviewed four types
of visitors, which they described as:
The Commuter
The Nomad
The Cafeteria Type
The V.I.P (Very Interested Person)
The Commuters were, basically, just passing
through the Ice Age exhibit in order to get to another
part of the museum. The Nomads were wanderers, not
looking for anything in particular; not really expecting
anything, but open to a new experience. The Cafeteria
Types were there to explore the entire museum, sampling the exhibits as they traveled from one to another,
ready and open to becoming interested in something
new . They wandered into the Ice Age exhibit, but also
stopped to explore. Finally, the V.I.P.s wandered into
the hall, but, because of a pre-existing interest in the
Ice Age, were more deliberate in the way they explored
and interacted with it.11 Given these types of visitors,
how does a curator design an exhibit that, rst, attracts
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Kate Borowske
the attention of everyone from the Commuters and
Nomads to the V.I.P, then, leads to exploration and,
nally, to learning?
One of the strategies artists use to capture attention
is juxtaposition; they place objects next to each other
that, at rst glance, are unrelated, or place a familiar
object in an unfamiliar or incongruous context. The
surrealists were masters of this. One of the more famous
surrealist images is by Rene Magritte. It is a very simple
painting of a pipe on a at, painted background with
the words Ceci nest pas une pipe (This is not a pipe).
His point was that the image of a thing and the word
for the thing are not the same as the thing. Whether
or not this is the point the viewer understands, it has
provoked much discussion.
Curators also use the art of juxtaposition, as well as
other strategies informed by curiosity theory. Museums
were once merely warehouses of objectsvaluable and
interesting, but, still, collections (museums evolved
from the sixteenth and seventeenth century Cabinets
of Curiosities, or Wunderkammern). Today, museums
are designed for learning. Curators design exhibits
that encourage visitors to explore, to make connections
between objects and with themselves, their values and
experiences. They include areas where children can
explore, provide opportunities for experiencing the
unexpected, and pose problems to solve.12
Curiosity is the thing. If you dont give life to curiosity, you
havent done your job.Carlos Picon, Curator-in-charge
of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The academic library, like the museum, is sometimes
thought of as a warehouse full of things. While a trip
to the library is frequently required, we cannot directly
control what students do once they are in our building.
Like the advertiser on the web, we cant force anyone to
click on our links. Unlike the faculty at our institutions,
we are not teaching a subject discipline; the skills we
teach are, essentially, a means to an end.
Most of us have library web pages which we carefully design to guide students to resources. Additionally,
many of us have developed online guides and tutorials
to provide another level of assistance. And many of us
have been frustrated when these online resources are
underutilized. We are increasingly faced with students,
faculty, and administrators who associate computer
skills with research skills, who use the World Wide
Web for research and dont understand the complexities

Curiosity and Motivation-to-Learn

of information. Some students come to library sessions
so condent of their internet skills that they, out loud,
ask Why are we here?
How do we engage the Commuters, the Nomads,
the Cafeteria Types, and the V.I.P.s? Curiosity theory
oers strategies that can help us design instruction that
motivates as well as teaches. The following strategies
are selected from Kashdan and Fincham:
Create tasks that capitalize on novelty, complexity, ambiguity, variety, and surprise
Purposely place individuals in contexts that are
discrepant with their experience, skills, and personality
Allow opportunities to play
Create challenges that match or slightly exceed
current skills
Provide choices and participation in decisionmaking process
Give clear information about task structure and
expectations
Emphasize the meaningfulness of activity and
eorts
Express empathy for individuals emotions,
values, and needs
Express and model interest in individuals and
activities13
Curiosity, easily frightened, takes refuge in puzzles,
murder mysteries, and spectator sports. Mason Cooley
Could Google be just as much a refuge for the anxious as it is a vehicle for the overcondent? Both
Loewensteins information gap theory and Days Zone
of Curiosity include zones where curiosity and willingness to explore are overwhelmed by too muchtoo
much uncertainty, too much unfamiliarity, too much
complexity. Our hope is to help create engaged, condent students who will become lifelong learners. We
can use strategies such as those cited in this paper to
help motivate the unmotivated. Whether we use curiosity as a series of strategies to improve our students
motivation or as a value that informs everything we do
as educators, there is still room for inspiration in the
library, the building or the online portal.
In teaching, you must simply work your pupil into
such a state of interest in what you are going to teach
him that every other object of attention is banished
from his mind; then reveal it to him so impressively
that he will remember the occasion to his dying day;
and nally ll him with devouring curiosity to know

349
what the next steps in connection with his subject
are. . . . Divination and perception, not psychological
pedagogics or theoretic strategy, are the only helpers
here.14
In the absence of divination, thank goodness for
strategy.

Notes

1. Loewenstein. The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review

and Reinterpretation, 76.
2. St. Augustine. The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book
10, Chapter 35.
3. Benedict. Curiosity: A Cultural History of Early Modern
Inquiry, 19.
4. James. The Principles of Psychology, Chapter 24.
5. Arnone. Arousing and Sustaining Curiosity: Lessons
From the ARCS Model, 3.
6. Kazdin. Curiosity, 414.
7. Loewenstein. The Psychology of Curiosity, 93.
8. Ibid., 94.
9. Burns and Gentry. Motivating Students to Engage in
Experiential Learning: A Tension-to-Learn Theory.
10. Menon and Soman. Managing the power of curiosity
for eective Web advertising strategies.
11. Wolf and Tymitz. Whatever Happened to the Giant
Wombat? 1011.
12. Ellis, Koran and Koran. Visitor Learning in Museums,
3438.
13. Kashdan and Fincham. Facilitating Curiosity, 490.
14. James. Talks to Teachers.

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April 710, 2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota

350
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