Self-regulated learning depends on task difficulty and on learners' resources and cognitive load, as described by an inverted U-shaped relationship in Seufert's (2018) model: for easy tasks, resources are high and load is low, so there is no need to regulate, whereas for difficult tasks, load is too high and resources are too low to regulate. Only…

Researchers studying curiosity and interest note a lack of consensus in whether and how these important motivations for learning are distinct. Empirical attempts to distinguish them are impeded by this lack of conceptual clarity. Following a recent proposal that curiosity and interest are folk concepts, we sought to determine a non-expert…

Curiosity and interest are at the core of human inquiry. However, controversies remain about how best to conceptualize these constructs. I propose to derive definitions by attending to the common core of typical usages of the two terms. Using this approach, curiosity can be defined as a psychological state that includes three components:…

My purpose in this commentary was to seek out any common ground that might be found for theory and research on curiosity and interest as detailed by the contributors to this special issue. Despite the numerous differences that these authors demarcated, several areas of concurrence were readily identified. Those seven areas are, thus, specified and…

This article explores the relation between curiosity and interest by examining how in-the-moment experiences of curiosity and of interest emerge out of exploratory behavior observed in infancy and early childhood. As experiential states, there is little to distinguish curiosity and interest. Descriptions of developing interests that refer to…

This review aims to clarify four perennial issues surrounding the concept of curiosity: its nature, conceptual distinction from situational interest, types, and educational implications. First, we argue that humans have evolved to be deeply curious to adapt to a world of uncertainty. Curiosity can be likened to an appetite for knowledge which can…

Previous studies suggested roles for curiosity and interest in knowledge acquisition and exploration, but there has been a long-standing debate about how to define these concepts and whether they are related or different. In this paper, we address the definition issue by arguing that there is inherent difficulty in defining curiosity and interest,…

In order to consider the relation between interest and curiosity, we first review various points of view on this issue, and discuss the scientific importance of making a distinction between the two concepts. Next, we explain that interest defined as a psychological state and as a cognitive and motivational variable can be supported to develop.…

Although the gender gap in math course-taking and performance has narrowed in recent decades, females continue to be underrepresented in math-intensive fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Career pathways encompass the ability to pursue a career as well as the motivation to employ that ability. Individual differences…

The experience of academic boredom among students may be universal; in fact, almost all students complain at least occasionally about being bored in class or while studying. Despite the perceived negative influence of boredom on learning, there has been no synthesis of empirical findings underscoring how boredom relates to academic outcomes.…

Research in both cognitive and educational psychology has explored the effect of different types of external knowledge representations (e.g., manipulatives, graphical/pictorial representations, texts) on a variety of important outcome measures. We place this large and multifaceted research literature into an organizing framework, classifying three…

In this paper, I offer advice to new researchers on how to conduct a successful research project in educational psychology. I break the research task into three parts: creating a research question, creating a research methodology, and creating a dissemination plan. The criteria for creating a research question include personal interest,…