Academic achievement and individual differences in learning processes

Abstract

This study was concerned with the degree of relationship between academic achievement, as assessed by college grade-point average, and information-processing habits relevant to learning, as assessed by the scales of the Inventory of Learning Processes (ILP). The ILP scales of Synthesis-Analysis, Fact Retention, and Elaborative Processing were significantly related to GPA and scores on the American College Testing (ACT) Program Assessment. Thus, the successful student seems to process information in depth and encode it elaboratively, while simultaneously retaining the details of the original information. Unexpectedly, the Study Methods scale demonstrated a small but significant negative relationship with ACT scores. A path analysis suggested that the effects which Fact Retention and Elaborative Processing have upon GPA are mainly direct, while the effect of Synthesis-Analysis is mostly interpreted by ACT.