The curiosity and exploration inventory-II: Development, factor structure, and psychometrics

Given curiosity’s fundamental role in motivation, learning, and well-being, we sought to refine the measurement of trait curiosity with an improved version of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (CEI; [Kashdan, T. B., Rose, P., & Fincham, F. D. (2004). Curiosity and exploration: Facilitating positive subjective experiences and personal growth opportunities. Journal of Personality Assessment, 82, 291–305]). A preliminary pool of 36 items was administered to 311 undergraduate students, who also completed measures of emotion, emotion regulation, personality, and well-being. Factor analyses indicated a two-factor model—motivation to seek out knowledge and new experiences (Stretching; five items) and a willingness to embrace the novel, uncertain, and unpredictable nature of everyday life (Embracing; five items). In two additional samples (ns = 150 and 119), we cross-validated this factor structure and provided initial evidence for construct validity. This includes positive correlations with personal growth, openness to experience, autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, psychological flexibility, positive affect, and positive social relations, among others. Applying item response theory (IRT) to these samples (n = 578), we showed that the items have good discrimination and a desirable breadth of difficulty. The item information functions and test information function were centered near zero, indicating that the scale assesses the mid-range of the latent curiosity trait most reliably. The findings thus far provide good evidence for the psychometric properties of the 10-item CEI-II.     

An analysis of recollection in the measurement of long‐term change in attitudes

In cross‐sectional research designs, the measurement of attitudinal and behavioural change has often relied upon respondents' reported recollection of the degree of change from one point in time to another. Alternatively, algebraic approaches for measuring change are often utilized in longitudinal designs with panel data. In a conceptual replication of prior work by Irving and Meyer (1995), this study undertook an examination of direct recall measures of change, as well as contemporaneous Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) measures of three attitudinal constructs (union commitment, union satisfaction, and union attitudes in general) over a 10‐year period. Based upon a sample of 195 union members, the investigation found that more proximal T2 measures of the constructs of interest were strongly related to single‐item measures of recollection of change and more distal T1 measures had no significant relationship with respondents' reported recollection of any of the attitudinal measures examined. In the interpretation of these findings, it is suggested that current attitudes provide cognitive prompts to survey‐based requests for recollection of past attitudes, which may in‐turn lead to serious reporting inaccuracies associated with many direct measures of recollection.