The Development of a Measure of State Epistemic Curiosity.

The development of a theoretically-derived measure of state epistemic curiosity, the State Curiosity Scale SCS, was described. Reliability and validity data was collected in two empirical studies with female undergraduate students. Alpha reliability coefficients of .87 in Study I and .89 in Study II were found. Concurrent validity findings included a significant positive correlation between the SCS and the Ontario Test of Intrinsic Motivation OTIM, a trait measure of specific curiosity. That is, Ss high in trait curiosity were found to have higher levels of state curiosity than Ss low in trait curiosity. Indirect evidence of the construct validity of the SCS were the findings of a significant negative correlation between state epistemic curiosity and state anxiety, and a significant positive correlation between state epistemic curisoity and performance in a Computer-Assisted Instruction CAI learning task. Author