Academic Achievement and Individual Differences in Learning Processes

Abstract

This study was concerned with the degree of re lationship between academic achievement, as as sessed by college grade-point average, and infor mation-processing habits relevant to learning, as as sessed by the scales of the Inventory of Learning Processes (ILP). The ILP scales of Synthesis-Analy sis, Fact Retention, and Elaborative Processing were significantly related to GPA and scores on the American College Testing (ACT) Program Assess ment. 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 Re tention and Elaborative Processing have upon GPA are mainly direct, while the effect of Synthesis- Analysis is mostly interpreted by ACT.