Sources of Situational Interest

We tested the relationship among sources of interest, perceived interest, and text recall. Sources of interest referred to factors (e.g., ease of comprehension) that evoke feelings of interest in a text. Perceived interest referred to the feeling of interest itself. A factor analysis revealed six different sources of interest. Of these, ease of comprehension and vividness explained 45% of the variance in perceived interest. In turn, perceived interest explained 18% of the variance in text recall; however, only ease of comprehension was related to recall once perceived interest was controlled statistically. Results suggested that different sources of interest affect perceived interest, which in turn, affects recall. Implications for text design and future research were discussed.