In response to the current literature on possible systematic differences in the epistemological beliefs of men and women and between members of different cultures, this paper examines the way psychological constructs associated with gender (i.e. gender orientation) and culture (i.e. values) are related to individual's epistemological beliefs.…

Past research into the ability of students to "bounce back" from everyday academic setback (academic buoyancy) has lacked sensitivity to the contexts in which children demonstrate this behavior. Here we aimed to contextualize past findings by reporting the results of an exploratory investigation that featured: (1) repeated measurement of students'…

This study examined the extent to which first grade teachers adapt their reading instruction to the literacy skills of particular children in their classroom, and investigated whether teacher and classroom characteristics influence such adaptation. Three hundred seven Finnish children were tested with regard to their literacy skills at the end of…

Our study sought to clarify the nature of the known individual differences in work values associated with academic college major choice, specifically the question whether these precede or follow the choice of an academic major. To rule out environmental influences during academic study, group differences in five value orientations were evaluated…

The distinction of different test anxiety reactions (e.g., worry, emotionality) is well established. Recently, additional relevance has been given to school-subject-specific test anxiety factors. The present study explored a further aspect concerning the structure of test anxiety experiences, specifically oral versus written examination modes. A…

We examined motivational orientations, cognitive-metacognitive strategies, and resource management in predicting academic achievement. Undergraduates (407) completed the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale, Achievement Goal Inventory, and self-reported grade point average. A MANCOVA (controlling for…

Examining motivational variables may prove to be particularly fruitful towards our understanding of classroom processes, student behaviors and school outcomes. The present study examined the role of personal and contextual goals (goals and goal structures) towards explaining social relationships (peer, teacher-student and home-school). 1493 fifth…

We investigated the influence of music during learning on the academic performance of undergraduate students, and more particularly the influence of affects induced by music. Altogether 249 students were involved in the study, divided into a control group and an experimental group. Both groups attended the same videotaped lecture, with the…

Decades of research have demonstrated that women experience higher rates of math anxiety--that is, negative affect when performing tasks involving numerical and mathematical skill--than men. Researchers have largely attributed this sex difference in math anxiety to factors such as social stereotypes and propensity to report anxiety. Here we…

This study compares the effects of two different self-assessment tools--rubrics and scripts--on self-regulation, learning and self-efficacy in interaction with two other independent variables (type of instructions and feedback). A total of 120 secondary school students analyzed landscapes--a usual task when studying Geography--in one of twelve…

Research suggests that children's motivation to read is influenced by their level of reading skill and reading self-concept. However, it is possible that characteristics unrelated to reading, such as underlying personality characteristics, may also influence children's motivation to read. The current study examined the extent to which children's…

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,…

The current paper presents a meta-analytic review of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), which consists of fifteen subscales designed from classic social-cognitive learning theories and which is widely used to predict academic performance. Results based on 2158 correlations from 67 independent samples and 19,900 college…

The purpose of this study was to investigate relations between goal orientations, information processing strategies and development of conceptual knowledge of pre-vocational secondary education students (n = 719; 14 schools). Students' preferences for certain types of goals and information processing strategies were examined using questionnaires.…

We investigated the usefulness of the Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ) as a measure of cognitive abilities. In OCQs respondents are asked to rate their familiarity with items of academic or everyday knowledge (Paulhus, Harms, Bruce, & Lysy, 2003). Some items exist in reality ("reals"), and others do not ("foils"). We developed four OCQs, each…