In this paper we will present three studies aimed at testing
predictions put forward by the knowledge-deprivation hypothesis.
In the first study we investigated the effect of having prior
knowledge about a problem on situational interest. Our research
question was: (1) Does the level of prior knowledge determine the
extent to which students are situationally interested? To that end
we manipulated the amount of prior knowledge that participants
had about a topic at hand before confronting them with a relevant
problem. The assumption based on the knowledge-deprivation
hypothesis was that only those who did not have the knowledge
to fully understand the problem would show an increase in situational
interest. Those who already had the knowledge required
would show no increase after being presented with the problem.