Liking guides learning: The role of interest in memory for STEM topics

Abstract

Interests are an essential part of the learning process, yet no previous work has examined the relationship between learning and individual differences in domain-general interests. Across a pilot study and a confirmatory follow-up study, we tested whether the broad interest traits of person orientation and thing orientation predict memory for STEM-related topics. In both studies (total N = 624), college student participants read brief educational texts on a randomly assigned STEM topic. The topics included artificial limb design, self-driving automobiles, and the anatomy of vision. Recall performance was measured using open-ended factual questions from the readings. Participants with stronger thing-oriented interests recalled more information from the texts, while person orientation was unrelated to recall. Thing orientation also predicted performance beyond the variance explained by gender and previous knowledge. The findings from these studies highlight the cognitive consequences of interests and present implications for STEM education.