Curiosity ratings are functionally distinct from subjective uncertainty ratings: uncertainty declines near-linearly with confidence while curiosity is inverted-U shaped¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Subjective uncertainty and curiosity showed different functional relations with confidence, and only curiosity discriminated high-confidence errors from correct answers. → Metcalfe 2023

Evidence¶

Metcalfe 2023¶

Metcalfe, J., Vuorre, M., Towner, E., & Eich, T. S. (2023). Curiosity: The effects of feedback and confidence on the desire to know. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol. 152, no. 2, pp. 464-482. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001284

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Experiment 4 between-participants comparison (42 subjective-uncertainty, 56 curiosity participants) of the two rating types on the same items. "Uncertainty ratings showed a sharp and near lin- ear decline with con fidence" (bLinear = −0.77), whereas curiosity showed an inverted U-shape (bLinear = −0.14, bQuadratic = −0.13); the linear difference between judgment types was significant (DifferenceLinear = −0.63).

"Uncertainty ratings showed a sharp and near lin- ear decline with con fidence ( bLinear = /C0.77, SE = .05, 95% CI"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Second-order metacognitive judgments of subjective uncertainty show a small high-confidence error/correct difference, smaller than curiosity ratings show — related
• Without feedback, people are more curious about high-confidence errors than about equally high-confidence correct answers, replicated across experiments — related
• Curiosity about trivia answers is a U-shaped function of confidence, supporting information-gap theory — related
• Yes/no feedback that participants were correct nearly quenched curiosity for correct answers, whereas without feedback curiosity peaked at moderate-to-high confidence — related
• Curiosity and confidence show an inverted U-shaped relationship, peaking at an intermediate confidence level — related
• Yes/no feedback that one was wrong increased curiosity selectively for high-confidence errors, leaving curiosity about low-confidence errors largely unchanged — related
• The more confident a learning partner's answers, the more competent the partner is perceived — related
• Low and medium Knowledge Confidence heighten curiosity, contradicting the predicted inverted U-shaped relationship — related
• Correctness Confidence linearly predicts curiosity, with higher confidence in a guess associated with greater curiosity — reports the opposite
• Higher confidence reduced knowledge exploration after correct answers, and high-confidence errors showed no effect on exploration — related