The effect of cognitive processes, learning strategies and social context on academic performance

MUSSO, M. F.; CASCALLAR, E. C.

Cape Town

Congreso; XXX International Congress of Psychology; 2012

International Union of Psychological Science

It has been shown that general academic performance is an important predictor of future academic performance, job performance, and future income level (Kuncel, Crede, & Thomas, 2005).Previous research has also shown that working memory (WM) and attentional networks (ATN) are extremely good predictors of performance on various cognitive tasks and of academic performance in particular, even when estimating long-term learning outcomes. The goal of this research is to study the interaction of basic cognitive resources (WM and ATN) with learning strategies, social context, self-concept, and individual background variables, as well as specifically the use of internet resources, and their impact on general academic performance.The sample of subjects was 700 entering university students of both genders, 18 to 25 years old, from various business and humanities programmes.The cognitive measures used were the Attentional Networks Test, and the AOSPAN (an automated test measuring working memory capacity). In addition, the LASSI (a validated learning strategies questionnaire) was used, together with a general questionnaire collecting basic background information, family system, socio-economic data, level of education of parents, occupation of parents, and internet use, of each student.Results show a very interesting pattern of interaction effects between the cognitive variables and background variables as well as with the LASSI subscales, highlighting the importance of certain levels of cognitive resources in combination with other variables for the prediction of levels of academic performance.These results have significant relevance for cognitive theory, learning, and self-regulation models, as well as applications in higher education practice.