The paper critiques existing theories of curiosity and proposes a motoric theory, suggesting curiosity drives exploratory actions without needing self-awareness.
What is the nature of curiosity? There are two types of accounts currently in the literature. According to one, curiosity is a metacognitive desire. According to the other, curiosity is a desire‐like attitude that embeds a question as its content. The present paper proposes a third alternative, according to which curiosity directly motivates innate or learned investigative behavior. It makes such behavior seem attractive and renders subsequent learning rewarding. No questions are needed; nor is any contentious form of self‐awareness required. The paper begins by critiquing the two existing theories, building on those criticisms to develop the motoric theory thereafter.
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Peter Carruthers (2026) studied this question.
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