Environmental enrichment hypothesis as an account of how cognitive ability and curiosity translate into knowledge attainment¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 6 claims (2 for, 2 mixed, 2 against) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The environmental enrichment hypothesis holds that engagement in epistemic behaviors enriches the environment, "thus providing more opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge". In this article it is combined with the differential preservation hypothesis and tested by asking whether epistemic behavior — cognitively challenging behavior at work or leisure such as reading, thinking, or learning — mediates the relations of cognitive ability and curiosity with academic grades. The five-year longitudinal mediation study found no support for the hypothesis for either predictor.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Requires behavioral indicators of epistemic behavior (work skill use, curiosity-activating work characteristics, epistemic and non-epistemic leisure activities) measured prospectively between the dispositions and the knowledge criterion

Constraints¶

• The article's mediation results disconfirm the hypothesis for young adults; the author notes the hypothesis may have differential meaning according to age, with stronger effects possibly in early childhood developing brains or in old age

Target Learners¶

• young adults in secondary and tertiary education

Target Learning Objectives¶

• knowledge acquisition and academic performance as outcomes of cognitive ability and curiosity

Claims¶

• Epistemic Behavior Fails To Mediate Academic Performance [-M]
• Cognitive ability and curiosity are positively correlated in young adults [+W]
• Secondary academic performance is predicted by cognitive ability more strongly than by curiosity [~W]
• Epistemic behavior relates to curiosity but not to cognitive ability [~W]
• Exploratory: leisure epistemic behavior mediates the relation of cognitive ability with tertiary academic performance, with a very small effect [+W]
• Neither cognitive ability, curiosity, nor epistemic behavior significantly predicts tertiary academic performance in the heterogeneous sample [-W]

Related Theories¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Mussel, Patrick. (2022). Processes Underlying the Relation between Cognitive Ability and Curiosity with Academic Performance: A Mediation Analysis for Epistemic Behavior in a Five-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Intelligence 10: 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10020023