Preference for Numerical Information and Academic Achievement of African-American Students

Abstract

Viswanathan's Preference for Numerical Information scale was used to investigate the attitudes of 236 African-American college students toward using numerical information in their thinking and problem solving. The results showed that the participants expressed a positive preference for numerical information, statistically similar in size to the preferences reported in prior research for other groups of students. Also, participants' scores correlated positively (r=.27) with their academic achievement (fraction answered correctly) on examination questions requiring the use of numerical information but were nonsignificantly related to their academic achievement on questions not requiring the use of numerical information. This pattern of correlations persisted, at reduced levels, when the effects of variations in SAT scores were partialled out. Moreover, for the men correlations between Preference for Numerical Information scores and achievement on examination questions involving numerical information significantly exceeded the correlations between the test scores and academic achievement on questions not involving numerical information. This contrasted with results obtained for women. For them, the correlations did not vary significantly by question type. Thus, for reasons yet to be uncovered, Preference for Numerical Information scores of the African-American men appear to reflect an aspect of cognitive style related to proficiency in using and manipulating numerical information.