Curiosity and the desire for agency: wait, wait … don’t tell me!

Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Table 1 Waiting Times by Curiosity Bin, Experiment 1

Curiosity Rating	Mean ‘wait’ time (s)	S.D. ‘wait’ time	Frequency
0.00 to 0.10	2.27	2.72	434
0.11 to 0.20	2.41	2.92	258
0.21 to 0.30	2.76	4.13	200
0.31 to 0.40	3.26	3.17	196
0.41 to 0.50	2.40	2.20	262
0.51 to 0.60	2.24	2.59	305
0.61 to 0.70	3.00	3.26	393
0.71 to 0.80	2.99	3.18	356
0.81 to 0.90	3.80	3.63	314
0.91 to 1.00	3.47	3.93	408

Mean time spent 'waiting' (i.e., the interval between making the rating of curiosity and asking for the answer to be presented), and frequency of responses, is given at each of 10 levels of curiosity which were determined by dividing the continuous curiosity scale into 10 levels. 0.0 was 'not curious at all' and 1.0 was 'extremely curious.' The starting position of the cursor on the scale was .5