The effects of confidence and intention to learn on performance in reading comprehension tests

<p>The present study was designed to better our understanding of human memory acquisition and recall by investigating what role, if any, confidence plays in tasks of academic performance and attempting to provide construct validity to the concept of intent to learn and its related principles of deep processing, attention to meaning, and elaborative rehearsal. 147 participants, whose confidence was manipulated prior to testing, were placed in one of four groups: High Confidence, Low Confidence, Control, and Spelling (no intent to learn). All participants were asked to read a short story adapted from the WIAT (the Spelling group asked only to check for spelling errors), and, contrary to their belief's were all given the same set of 10 multiple-choice questions. Confidence levels were assessed with a post-test questionnaire. One-way ANOVAs and Pearson's Correlations suggest not only that confidence can be manipulated through verbal persuasion, but that a significant role exists for confidence on performance, especially with respect to low confidence, and there is a vital role for the intention to learn on acquisition and recall.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. in School Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Services and Leadership

Year dc:date.available

2004

Author dc:creator

• Rosamilia, Anthony John

Contributors dc:contributor

• Klanderman, John
• Dihoff, Roberta

• Learning, Psychology of; Reading comprehension
• Educational Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/1227

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rdw.rowan.edu:etd-2227