Deprivation or Interest-Type Curiosity and Exploratory Behaviour in Humans: Are they Inherently Cognitive and Implicate Curiosity-Induced Teaching?
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.
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.
This uncertainty will induce some arousal. It is in this respect that there is always some level
of correlation between arousal and human performance. This leads us to consider the relationship between the two, and to examine the Yerkes-Dodson law of 1908.13 The Yerkes-Dodson law simply states that poor performance is the result of low-level of arousal. Similarly, a high-level of performance can equally induce poor performance. However, when arousal is in moderation it
precipitates good performance.
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.
The Yerkes-Dodson law simply states that poor performance is the result of low-level of arousal. Similarly, a high-level of performance can equally induce poor performance. However, when arousal is in moderation it precipitates good performance.
Psychol Cogn Sci Open J. 2017; 3(4): e16-e18. doi: 10.17140/PCSOJ-3-e009