Verification of the Similarity between Elementary School Students’ State Curiosity and Situational Interest Levels Triggered by Optical Illusion Classes

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether state curiosity and situational interest, triggered in learning contexts dealing with unfamiliar contents, exhibit similar patterns. For this purpose, we examined the similarity in eliciting epistemic state curiosity and situational interest in classes on optical illusions that were unfamiliar to fifth-grade students, using exploratory factor analysis and one-way repeated-measures MANOVA. The results indicated that both state curiosity and situational interest were extracted as a single factor in the optical illusion classes over four sessions. Additionally, the patterns of triggered state curiosity and situational interest levels were similar across the eight measurement occasions. These results suggest that when learning novel and intriguing content, such as optical illusion, which is unfamiliar to students due to a lack of learning experience or prior knowledge, epistemic state curiosity and situational interest may exhibit similar underlying psychological mechanisms. These findings imply the possibility that situational interest may be a prerequisite for triggering state curiosity. The implications for education and potential directions for future research are discussed.