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Second- through fourth-grade students were read a storybook that described a typical boy who interacted with an obese boy for one of four reasons (sympathy, curiosity, teacher instructed, or no reason) to explore the manner in which a typical storybook character's reason for associating with an obese storybook character influences children's responses to both characters. Results revealed that the children responded more favorably to the obese storybook character after than before learning about the typical storybook character's association with him, especially when the typical storybook character's reason for association was presented as internally motivated (sympathy or curiosity). In contrast to “stigma by association” findings reported in prior research, the children also responded more favorably to the typical storybook character after than before his association with the obese storybook character. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study uses four waves of panel data to analyze inadvertent learning—that is, learning in the absence of interest or motivation—from watching public service television channels. Previous research suggests that motivation-based gaps in political knowledge are at least partly a function of the political information opportunities provided by the major television channels in a country, which influence the likelihood of being inadvertently exposed to news and current affairs programs. The present study puts the inadvertent learning hypothesis to a thorough empirical test by analyzing individual-level growth in knowledge over time, based on panel data collected during five months leading up to the Swedish 2010 national election. Using multilevel growth curve modeling and an extensive battery of surveillance knowledge questions, the results show not only (a) that public service channel viewing was related to learning, but also (b) that knowledge growth occurred among public service viewers independently of their political motivation and news attention, and (c) that such learning was even more pronounced among viewers lacking an interest in politics. The findings are discussed in light of ongoing media environmental transformations as well as cross-national comparative media systems research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested whether a utility value intervention (via manipulated relevance) influenced interest and performance on a task and whether this intervention had different effects depending on an individual's performance expectations or prior performance. Interest was defined as triggered situational interest (i.e., affective and emotional task reactions) and maintained situational interest (i.e., inclination to engage in the task in the future). In 2 randomized experiments, 1 conducted in the laboratory and the other in a college classroom, utility value was manipulated through a writing task in which participants were asked to explain how the material they were learning (math or psychology) was relevant to their lives (or not). The intervention increased perceptions of utility value and interest, especially for students who were low in expected (laboratory) or actual (classroom) performance. Mediation analyses revealed that perceptions of utility value explained the effects of the intervention on interest and predicted performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to identify factors that statistically explain the variation and the measures on the level of motivation of a sample of mathematics students in a university. Specifically, this analysis will identify groups of similar items and reduce the number of variables used in a study. This article explains the use of exploratory factor analysis in extracting factors of personal belief and motivational factors among students in learning mathematics. The adaptation of these factors can be used for assessing academic performance in relation to motivation level. By identifying these factors, the mathematics educators or researchers will be able to find ways to improve the condition of the factors and also to further investigate the factors based on confirmatory approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, Frederick Schmitt and Reza Lahroodi explore the value of curiosity for inquiry and knowledge. They defend an appetitive account of curiosity, viewing curiosity as a motivationally original desire to know that arises from having one’s attention drawn to the object and that in turn sustains one’s attention to it. Distinguishing curiosity from wonder, the authors explore several sources of the epistemic value of curiosity. First, curiosity is tenacious: curiosity whether a proposition is true leads to curiosity about related issues, thereby deepening our knowledge. Second, it is to some extent biased in favor of topics in which we already have a practical or epistemic interest. Third, and most important, curiosity is largely independent of our interests: it fixes our attention on objects in which we have no antecedent interest, thereby broadening our knowledge. Schmitt and Lahroodi elucidate the value of curiosity by outlining its role in levels of development — an approach indebted to John Dewey’s explanation of the value of curiosity. Finally, they raise some questions about the implications of their account for educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal orientation is a multidimensional construct widely examined by social, organizational, educational, and sports psychology researchers. However, despite theoretical perspectives indicating that individuals can adopt or manifest more than one goal orientation simultaneously, researchers traditionally examine relationships between the goal orientation dimensions and outcome variables of interest independently. In contrast, this study was designed to examine whether individuals can be sorted into meaningful goal orientation profiles based on their scores on measures of learning, performance–approach, and performance–avoidance goal orientation, and the relationships between the resulting profiles and various dispositional and motivational variables. Our results indicated that a 4-profile solution best fit our data and that the 4 profiles differed uniquely across our dependent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our cognitive motivational process model (Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 12:11–23, 1998) we assume that initial motivation affects performance via motivation during learning and learning strategies. These variables are also central for self-regulation theories (e.g., M. Boekaerts, European Psychologist, 1:100–122, 1996). In this article we discuss methods with which the model can be tested. Initial motivation with its four factors challenge, probability of success, interest, and anxiety was measured with the Questionnaire on Current Motivation (QCM; Rheinberg, Vollmeyer, & Burns, Diagnostica, 47:57–66, 2001). As an indicator for the functional state we assessed flow with the FKS (Rheinberg, Vollmeyer, & Engeser, Diagnostik von Motivation und Selbstkonzept [Diagnosis of Motivation and Self-Concept], Hogrefe, Göttingen, Germany, 261–279, 2003). We also used different tasks, including a linear system, a hypermedia program, and university-level classes. In general, our methods are valid and with them we found support for our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new theoretical model of curiosity that incorporates the neuroscience of “wanting” and “liking”, which are two systems hypothesised to underlie motivation and affective experience for a broad class of appetites. In developing the new model, the paper discusses empirical and theoretical limitations inherent to drive and optimal arousal theories of curiosity, and evaluates these models in relation to Litman and Jimerson's (2004) recently developed interest‐deprivation (I/D) theory of curiosity. A detailed discussion of the I/D model and its relationship to the neuroscience of wanting and liking is provided, and an integrative I/D/wanting‐liking model is proposed, with the aim of clarifying the complex nature of curiosity as an emotional‐motivational state, and to shed light on the different ways in which acquiring knowledge can be pleasurable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing motivated learners is an ongoing struggle for teachers. Many of their students find learning to be boring and irrelevant. Therefore, teachers need strategies to enhance student motivation by making learning interesting and personally meaningful. This article provides teachers with four motivational strategies and makes suggestions to stimulate student curiosity and to give students a sense of personal control in their learning programs. In addition, it is suggested that teachers provide moderately difficult tasks and establish the relevance of content by relating it to students' needs and interests. Support for this approach from a theory of student motivation is presented, along with research about student interest. For students with motivational deficiencies, the strategies are necessary for their active engagement in the learning process.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the interrelations between interest, learning and motivation. Historical background of concept of interest; Definition of interest; Features of concept of interest.

The article offers the author's insights on teaching physics, the importance of interest and motivation of students, and physics education research. Topics discussed include a study on learning approaches of students by physicist John Biggs, statistical mechanics and electromagnetism, and thermal physics.