Epistemic emotion
This article is about a learning emotion or class of learning emotions.
View list of learning emotions / classes of learning emotions
Definition
An epistemic emotion is an emotion experienced by a learner in a learning context, driven partly or wholly by the changes to the learner's epistemic state as a result of learning. Typical epistemic emotions include surprise, curiosity, and confusion.
In addition to being influenced by the learning process, epistemic emotions in turn influence the learning process, by making learners pay more or less attention to specific parts of what they are learning, or more fully update their internal models.
Relation with achievement emotions
Another learning-related type of emotion experienced by learners is achievement emotion -- this is emotion tied with the learner's ability to achieve the goals of learning (for instance, satisfaction or frustration at being or not being able to accomplish a task, or a feeling of being prepared or not prepared for a test). Achievement emotions become relatively more important in learning where the learners are pursuing goals of personal importance; epistemic emotions become more important as the material being learned becomes harder or more counter-intuitive.