Visiting Research Scientist
Jordan Litman, Ph.D., received his B.A. in psychology from Arcadia University in 1994 and his doctorate in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Florida in 2000. His major domains of expertise are psychometrics, quasi-experimental design and the use of multivariate statistical methods, such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. He is also an expert in the development, validation, and application of psychological tests and measures.
Jordan’s research focuses on the nature, dimensionality, and measurement of different aspects of epistemic curiosity as a personality trait, and their role in the activation of emotional-motivational curiosity states and subsequent knowledge-seeking and problem-solving behaviors. His work also examines the relationships between individual differences in the experience and expression of epistemic curiosity, setting self-directed learning goals and attaining varying levels of achievement in academic and workplace settings. He is also interested in how metacognitive judgments about the contents of memory (i.e., what an individual thinks s/he knows or doesn’t know) influence the arousal and experiential intensity of epistemic curiosity states.
Jordan is working as a Visiting Research Scientist and research consultant to IHMC Senior Scientist Robert Hoffman on developing new methods of empirically investigating the interface between state and trait epistemic curiosity, critical thinking, and reasoning about the causes of complex “real world” problems.
Lauriola, M., Litman, J. A., Mussel, P., De Santis, R., Crowson, H.M., & Hoffman, R.R. (2015). Epistemic curiosity and self-regulation. Personality and Individual Differences, 83, 202-207.
Piotrowski, J.T., Litman, J. A., & Valkenburg, P. (2014). Measuring epistemic curiosity in young children. Infant and Child Development, 23, 542-533.
Richards, J.B., Litman, J. A., & Roberts D.H. (2013). Performance characteristics of measurement instruments of epistemic curiosity in third-year medical students. Medical Science Educator, 23, 355-363
Litman, J.A. & Mussel, P. (2013). Development and validation of German translations of interest- and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity scales. Journal of Individual Differences, 34, 59-68.
Litman, J.A. (2010). Relationships between measures of I- and D-type curiosity, ambiguity tolerance, and need for closure: An initial test of the wanting-liking model of information- seeking. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 397-402.
Litman, J.A. (2008). Interest and deprivation dimensions of epistemic curiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1585–1595.
Litman, J.A. (2005). Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 793-814
Litman, J.A., Hutchins, T.L., & Russon, R.K. (2005). Epistemic curiosity, feeling-of-knowing, and exploratory behaviour. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 559-582.
Litman, J.A., & Jimerson, T.L. (2004). The measurement of curiosity as a feeling-of-deprivation. Journal of Personality Assessment, 82, 147-157.