Curiosity as a personality variable influencing learning in a learner controlled lesson with and without advisement

This study investigated the effect of curiosity on learning art education facts and concepts by first- and second-graders in computer-based interactive learner control environments with and without advisement. High-curious subjects, who generally prefer a higher degree of unfamiliarity and uncertainty, were predicted to perform better in either learner control environment than low-curious children. All children regardless of curiosity level were expected to perform better in the advisement condition than in the no-advisement condition. As predicted, a significant difference in achievement scores favored the high-curious children in both conditions. Although there was no main treatment effect, exploratory analyses revealed an unpredicted significant interaction between grade level and treatment. First-graders performed significantly better with advisement than without advisement while second-graders performed better without. Examination of treatment usage data indicated that first-graders followed advisement more than did second-graders.