The Role of Uncertainty in Models of Epistemic Curiosity

The psychological research strategies of studying epistemic curiosity traditionally consider four factors of motivation to search for new information: the degree of familiarity with the subject, the expected value of information, the cultural framework of tolerance to new information and the features of the material resources of the epistemic situation. A comparison of these models shows that regardless of where the study of curiosity begins — in behavior, in mental processes, in personal characteristics or in interaction with the environment — the place of uncertainty in the conceptual system remains the same. Uncertainty is one of the key characteristics of modern culture, which raises the question of the degree of influence of its experiences on cognitive processes. The purpose of the article is to review foreign studies on the connection of epistemic curiosity with the experience of uncertainty. The article contains the analysis of the four main models of epistemic curiosity and the suggestion of the new (unifying) model, according to which curiosity is a tool for "managing uncertainty" in order to adapt in the most effective way to a complex, unpredictable environment.

1. Birenbaum M., Alhija F.N.A., Shilton H., Kimron H., Rosanski R., Shahor N. A further look at the five-dimensional curiosity construct. Personality and Individual Differences, 2019. Vol. 149, pp. 57–65. DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2019.05.038
2. Abir Y., Marvin C.B., van Geen C., Leshkowitz M., Hassin R.R., Shohamy D. An energizing role for motivation in information-seeking during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Communications, 2022. Vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–10. DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-30011-5
3. Arredondo P. Hofstede Geert. In Carducci B.J., Nave C.S. (eds.), The Wiley Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. IV. Clinical, Applied, and Cross‐Cultural Research. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell, 2020, pp. 667–672. DOI:10.1002/9781118970843.ch376
4. Berlyne D.E. A theory of human curiosity. British journal of psychology, 1954. Vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 180–191. DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1954.tb01243.x
5. Dai W., Xia Y., Jia N. Localized revision of the epistemic curiosity scale for chinese senior high school students. In Pracana C., Wang M. (eds.), International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends. Psychological Applications and Trends 2021. Lisboa: inScience Press, 2021, pp. 429–431. DOI:10.36315/2021inpact093
6. Chevrier M., Muis K.R., Trevors G.J., Pekrun R., Sinatra G.M. Exploring the antecedents and consequences of epistemic emotions. Learning and Instruction, 2019. Vol. 63, article ID 101209, 18 p. DOI:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.05.006
7. Golman R., Gurney N., Loewenstein G. Information gaps for risk and ambiguity. Psychological Review, 2021. Vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 86–102. DOI:10.1037/rev0000252
8. Gordon R.M. Simulation, predictive coding, and the shared world. In Gilead M., Ochsner K.N. (eds.), The Neural Basis of Mentalizing. Cham: Springer, 2021, pp. 237–255. DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-51890-5_12
9. Hardy J.H., Ness A.M., Mecca J. Outside the box: Epistemic curiosity as a predictor of creative problem solving and creative performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 2017. Vol. 104, pp. 230–237. DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2016.08.004
10. Hidi S.E., Renninger K.A. Interest development and its relation to curiosity: needed neuroscientific research. Educational Psychology Review, 2019. Vol. 31, pp. 833–852. DOI:10.1007/s10648-019-09491-3
11. Huang Q., Cao S., Zhou S., Punia D., Zhu X., Luo Y., Wu H. How anxiety predicts interpersonal curiosity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediation effect of interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency. Personality and individual differences, 2021. Vol. 180, article ID 110973, 9 p. DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2021.110973
12. Donnellan E., Aslan S., Fastrich G.M., Murayama K. How are curiosity and interest different? Naïve Bayes classification of people’s beliefs. Educational Psychology Review, 2022. Vol. 34, pp. 73–105. DOI:10.1007/s10648-021-09622-9
13. Karandikar S., Kapoor H., Litman J. Why so curious? Validation and cross-cultural investigation of the Hindi Epistemic Curiosity Scale. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2021. Vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 69–82. DOI:10.1111/ajsp.12425
14. Kersten L. A New Mark of the Cognitive? Predictive Processing and Extended Cognition. Synthese, 2022. Vol. 200, article ID 281, 25 p. DOI:10.1007/s11229-022-03674-2
15. Kiverstein J., Miller M., Rietveld E. The feeling of grip: novelty, error dynamics, and the predictive brain. Synthese, 2019. Vol. 196, pp. 2847–2869. DOI:10.1007/s11229-017-1583-9
16. Litman J.A., Jimerson T.L. The measurement of curiosity as a feeling of deprivation. Journal of personality assessment, 2004. Vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 147–157. DOI:10.1207/s15327752jpa8202_3
17. Loewenstein G. The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological bulletin, 1994. Vol. 116, no. 1, pp. 75–98. DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.116.1.75
18. Lunn Brownlee J., Ferguson L.E., Ryan M. Changing teachers' epistemic cognition: a new conceptual framework for epistemic reflexivity. Educational Psychologist, 2017. Vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 242–252. DOI:10.1080/00461520.2017.1333430
19. Magnani L. Eco-Cognitive Openness and Eco-Cognitive Closure. In Magnani L. Discoverability: The Urgent Need of an Ecology of Human Creativity. Cham: Springer, 2022, pp. 53–78. DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-93329-6_3
20. Wagstaff M.F., Flores G.L., Ahmed R., Villanueva S. Measures of curiosity: A literature review. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 2021. Vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 363–389. DOI:10.1002/hrdq.21417
21. Metcalfe J., Schwartz B.L., Eich T.S. Epistemic curiosity and the region of proximal learning. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 2020. Vol. 35, pp. 40–47. DOI:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.06.007
22. Murayama K., FitzGibbon L., Sakaki M. Process account of curiosity and interest: A reward-learning perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 2019. Vol. 31, pp. 875–895. DOI:10.1007/s10648-019-09499-9
23. Rosman T., Kerwer M. Mechanisms of epistemic change: The roles of reflection and social interaction. Psychology Learning and Teaching, 2022. Vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 193–209. DOI:10.1177/14757257221098860
24. Schmidt H.G., Rotgans J.I. Epistemic curiosity and situational interest: Distant cousins or identical twins? Educational Psychology Review, 2021. Vol. 33, pp. 325–352. DOI:10.1007/s10648-020-09539-9
25. Subaşı A. A Dynamic Systems Theory of epistemic curiosity. New Ideas in Psychology, 2019. Vol. 54, pp. 8–14. DOI:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.12.003
26. Vogl E., Pekrun R., Murayama K., Loderer K., Schubert S. Surprise, curiosity, and confusion promote knowledge exploration: evidence for robust effects of epistemic emotions. Frontiers in Psychology, 2019. Vol. 10, article ID 2474, 16 p. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02474
27. Vogl E., Pekrun R., Murayama K., Loderer K. Surprised-Curious-Confused: Epistemic Emotions and Knowledge Exploration. Emotion, 2019. Vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 625–641. DOI:10.1037/emo0000578
28. Szumowska E., Kruglanski A.W. Curiosity as end and means. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2020. Vol. 35, pp. 35–39. DOI:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.06.008
29. Kashdan T.B., Stiksma M.C., Disabato D.J., McKnight P.E., Bekier J., Kaji J., Lazarus R. The five-dimensional curiosity scale: Capturing the bandwidth of curiosity and identifying four unique subgroups of curious people. Journal of Research in Personality, 2018. Vol. 73, pp. 130–149. DOI:10.1016/j.jrp.2017.11.011
30. Werner K. Cognitive confinement: theoretical considerations on the construction of a cognitive niche, and on how it can go wrong. Synthese, 2021. Vol. 198, pp. 6297–6328. DOI:10.1007/s11229-019-02464-7
31. Wojtowicz Z., Loewenstein G. Curiosity and the economics of attention. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2020. Vol. 35, pp. 135–140. DOI:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.09.002