Inquiry Arousal

Description

Inquiry arousal is the state of arousal where we seek to find out more, typically where a stimulus has piqued our curiosity.

Curiosity can be provoked by the use of:

Incongruity: Where experience and mental models do not match.

Interest: Where opportunity is presented to achieve goals.

Incompletion: Where only partial information is provided.

Conflict: Where differences are accentuated.

These can be presented through challenges that may be posed through:

Questions: Which stimulate new thinking.

Problems: Which need thought to solve.

Humor: Which requires thought to understand.

Debate: Where arguments are made for given positions.

Role-play: Where they take the part of defined characters.

Example

A science teacher shows a chemical reaction and then asks the class to suggest what may be going on.

A sales person takes a person for a drive in a car they have said they do not like, yet it seems to perform better than they expected. They hence want to know more about the car, which gives the sales person opportunity to overcome their initial bias.

A soap opera finishes with some bad news, though this is not explicitly described. Viewers hence want to watch the next episode to find out what this is.

Discussion

To become curious requires that the person is reasonably confident with basic needs met and little or no fear nor excessive stress. If the person is overloaded or fears overload, then they will avoid novelty and not be curious.

Likewise, if they feel threatened then they will be more concerned to protect themselves than inquire and explore new areas.

There is hence a 'zone of curiosity' in which the possibility of discovery is more attractive than the possibility of distress. A curious person will approach rather than avoid a novel situation, seeing it as interesting rather than threatening.

Quick links

Inquiry Arousal

Description

Example

Discussion

So what?

See also

Site Menu

You can buy books here

Quick links

Disciplines

Techniques

Principles

Explanations

Theories

And

Site Menu

Quick links

Disciplines

Techniques

Principles

Explanations

Theories

And