Intellectual curiosity (also called epistemic curiosity) is

curiosity Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps Developmental psyc ...

that leads to an acquisition of

general knowledge General knowledge is information that has been accumulated over time through various media and sources. It excludes specialized learning that can only be obtained with extensive training and information confined to a single medium. General know ...

. It can include curiosity about such things as what objects are composed of, the underlying mechanisms of systems, mathematical relationships, languages, social norms, and history. It can be differentiated from another type of curiosity that does not lead to the acquisition of general knowledge, such as curiosity about the intimate secrets of other people. It is a facet of

openness to experience Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe personality psychology, human personality in the Big Five personality traits, Five Factor Model. Openness involves six Facet (psychology), facets, or dimensions: active imagina ...

in the

Five Factor Model In personality psychology and psychometrics, the Big 5 or five-factor model (FFM) is a widely-used scientific model for describing how personality traits differ across people using five distinct factors: * ''openness'' (''O'') measures creat ...

used to describe human personalities. It is similar to

need for cognition The need for cognition (NFC), in psychology, is a personality variable reflecting the extent to which individuals are inclined towards effortful cognitive activities. Need for cognition has been variously defined as "a need to structure releva ...

and

typical intellectual engagement Typical intellectual engagement (TIE) is a personality construct referring to a person's enjoyment (or dislike) of intellectually demanding activities. TIE was developed to identify aspects of personality most closely related to intelligence and ...

History

In antiquity, the Roman philosopher

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

wrote about humans' innate love of learning: In 1738, the Scottish philosopher

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

differentiated intellectual curiosity from a more primitive form of curiosity: Later, in 1954, Berlyne differentiated it into perceptual curiosity and epistemic curiosity, and in 2004 a psychometric scale to assess epistemic and perceptual curiosity was developed.

Intellectual development in children

Humans seem to be born with intellectual curiosity, but depending on how parents react to questions from their children, intellectual curiosity might be increased or decreased. Parents that always react negatively to questions asked by their children, are discouraging them from asking questions, and that is likely to make them less curious. On the other hand, parents that always react positively to questions asked by their children, are encouraging them to ask questions, and that is likely to make them more curious.

Academic performance

Intellectual curiosity has been positively correlated with academic performance (0.20), together with general intelligence (0.35) and conscientiousness (0.20).

Scientific progress

Toby E. Huff has argued that the European civilization had a high level of intellectual curiosity during the scientific revolution. He also argues that other civilizations have had a high level of intellectual curiosity in their most progressive stages.

Neurobiological basis

The

temporal lobe The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain. The temporal lobe is involved in pr ...

is involved in understanding. Intellectual curiosity might be regarded as the trait that motivates growth of understanding in the

. Motivation is effectuated by the neurotransmitter

dopamine Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuromodulatory molecule that plays several important roles in cells. It is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. It is an amine synthesized ...

Similarity to other concepts

The measures of

Need for cognition The need for cognition (NFC), in psychology, is a personality variable reflecting the extent to which individuals are inclined towards effortful cognitive activities. Need for cognition has been variously defined as "a need to structure releva ...

(NFC) and

Typical intellectual engagement Typical intellectual engagement (TIE) is a personality construct referring to a person's enjoyment (or dislike) of intellectually demanding activities. TIE was developed to identify aspects of personality most closely related to intelligence and ...

(TIE) are found to be sufficiently correlated (.78) that they are argued to be measuring essentially the same trait. Keeping that in mind, measures of intellectual curiosity, NFC and TIE were found to be correlated (on average with a coefficient of .57), substantiating the supposition of their similarity.

References

{{reflist Cognitive science Psychological attitude Interest (psychology) Learning