From the abstract: <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-019-01598-6" rel="nofollow">https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-019-01598-6</a><p>>Recent work has argued that curiosity can improve learning. However, these studies also leave open the possibility that being on the verge of knowing can itself induce curiosity. We investigate how prior knowledge relates to curiosity and subsequent learning using a trivia question task. Curiosity in our task is best predicted by a learner’s estimate of their current knowledge, more so than an objective measure of what they actually know. Learning is best predicted by both curiosity and an objective measure of knowledge. These results suggest that while curiosity is correlated with knowledge, there is only a small boost in learning from being curious. The implication is that the mechanisms that drive curiosity are not identical to those that drive learning outcomes.
> Our findings expand on the idea of readiness by showing that what children think they know, but don’t know, can boost their curiosity and motivate learning.<p>For adults, I expect this still requires a neutral ground context before it can work. It’s easy to find arguments where people fiercely believe untrue things because the conversation starts in a judgemental and hostile place.<p>Personally, I love reflecting on the fact that there are <i>very</i> few things I can actually say I “know” for absolutely certain, in the sense that I have verified it myself, not in the sense that I learned it or read it or have a strong belief. The number of things I’m quite certain about vastly vastly outnumber the things I can say I know for sure. I think it does help me stay curious, but mostly when I’m free to ponder and explore, not when I’m in the middle of a heated debate.
I might be the extreme sort of skeptic, but I can't help but roll my eyes whenever I see the published results for any experiment conducted in the social sciences. What worries me even more is that when published the public can take the results and treat them as fact.<p>So let's take a look at what we can about this experiment:<p>1) A sample size of 87: Okay, better than many studies, but I still have my doubts about the statistical power for this study.<p>2) The adults used for this study were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk: Okay, already we have a selection bias. At this pointed I'm strongly tempted to read no further.<p>3) I can't get any more details about the experiment itself since I don't want to pay $US40 to access the PDF.