The issue of race differences in standardized test scores and academic achievement continues to be a vexing one for behavioral scientists and society at large. Ellis and Ryan (2003) suggested that a portion of the cognitive-ability test performance differences between White/Caucasian-American and Black/African-American college students could be…

It is frequently assumed that by virtue of their hearing losses, deaf students are visual learners. Deaf individuals have some visual-spatial advantages relative to hearing individuals, but most have been linked to use of sign language rather than auditory deprivation. How such cognitive differences might affect academic performance has been…

A new self-report instrument, the Children's Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (C-OSIVQ), was designed to assess cognitive styles in younger populations (8-17 years old). The questionnaire was based on the previously developed adult version of the Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ; Blazhenkova & Kozhevnikov,…

In the present study, we investigated the ability of 106 (55 males, 51 females) college students to recall an 8-step path from different viewpoints (0 degrees; 90 degrees; 180 degrees and 270 degrees) after primary and secondary learning without a time limit. For each participant, we computed the time and number of repetitions necessary to learn…

Item Response Theory (IRT) models were applied to investigate the psychometric properties of the Arthur and Day's Advanced Progressive Matrices-Short Form (APM-SF; 1994) [Arthur and Day (1994). "Development of a short form for the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices test." "Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54," 395-403] in order to test…

This study investigated the simultaneous impact of demographic, personality, intelligence, and (prior) study performance factors on students' academic achievement in a three-year academic problem-based psychology program. Information regarding students' gender, age, nationality, pre-university education, high school grades, Big Five personality…

The effects of personal characteristics (e.g. personality, aptitude, gender) on student performance, such as Grade Point Average (GPA) and course grades, have been systematically researched, with the emphasis being mainly on outcomes rather than the processes leading to them. The purpose of this paper is to shift the focus to students' perceived…

Studies on the interface between cognitive ability (intelligence) and personality in the prediction of academic performance have yielded mixed results so far. Especially an interaction between conscientiousness (and its facet achievement striving) and intelligence has been investigated. The hypothesis is that conscientiousness enhances the impact…

The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate differences in interests, personality, and cognitive abilities between students majoring in the six specialties of psychology at the University of Amsterdam. Results show that students at Social Psychology and Work and Organizational Psychology were on average more extraverted than students of…

Based on samples of 398 middle school students, 568 high school students, and 1159 college students, self-directed learning was found to be related to cumulative grade-point-average at all levels as well as to Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion), narrow personality traits (Optimism,…

College students (Experiment 1) and non-college adults (Experiment 2) studied a computer-based 31-frame lesson on electronics that offered help-screens containing text (text group) or illustrations (pictorial group), and then took a learning test. Participants also took a battery of 14 cognitive measures related to the verbalizer-visualizer…