Differences in belief-consistent and belief-inconsistent learning in traditional college students.

Abstract

Beliefs, described as adaptive mechanisms that frame experiences and shield against problems or criticism, impact learning and behavior. With maturation, adolescents and emergent adults are increasingly able to learn information inconsistent with their perspective, analytically and with deliberation. We hypothesized that upper-division traditional college-aged students should be more effective learning belief-inconsistent information relative to first-year college students. In three studies comparing first-year and upper-class traditional college aged students, participants read information about political issues, rated their opinion, and answered questions about issues. Results indicated that older students learned information contrary to their perspective better than consistent information, whereas two studies showed that first-years demonstrated better learning of information consistent with their beliefs. This suggests older students have better ability to control analytical reasoning. Over the span of only a few years, young adults provided age-related behavioral evidence of more complex comprehension and thinking. Our data suggests that experience and/or maturation can decrease the restrictive filter beliefs may have on learning.: learning, beliefs, adolescence, emergent adults, political reasoning