Applying Silvia's model of interest to academic text: Is there a third appraisal?

Recent research, treating interest as an emotion, indicates the cognitive appraisals of novelty-complexity and coping potential predict interest. This appraisal-based model of interest has not yet been applied to educational research. The present study evaluated the significance of the model regarding the activity of reading expository, academic-oriented text, and assessed whether a third previously untested appraisal of goal relevance could predict interest as well. Sixty-five undergraduate psychology students, 41 females and 24 males, completed several instruments—assessments of interest and three appraisals across time, experimental texts, and a measure trait curiosity as a control variable. Goal relevance, was shown to predict interest across the sample to a statistically significant degree (Unstandardized β = .567; t = 6.258; p < .001), displaying more predictive power than the combined effects of the original two appraisals. These results and the study's implications are discussed.

► Examined the application of Silvia's functionalist, two-appraisal model of interest in a learning context. ► Hypothesized that a third heretofore untested appraisal—goal relevance—predicted interest in academic material. ► Goal relevance was found to predict interest in academic text to a statistically significant degree (p < .001). ► Suggests a personality feature affects interest alongside Silvia's functional account of interest. ► Indicates the model works with academic text, but goal relevance is the strongest predictor.