Exploring the relationship Between Cognitive Distortions and Cognitive Failure in College Students

Dysfunctional thoughts manifest themselves in regular moods of depression. This study explored the relationship between cognitive distortions and depression among undergraduate students. The study also examined the influence of students' personal characteristics (gender, age, and educational level) on cognitive distortions and depression. A total of two hundred undergraduate students from the University of Ghana responded to both Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ). Analyses of data reveal a positive and significant relationship between cognitive distortions and depression. However, no relationship was found between age and cognitive distortions and depression. Again, there was no gender difference in depression and cognitive distortions. Finally, there was a significant impact of educational level on depression but not on cognitive distortions. The findings of the study are discussed.

Journal of Postsecondary Student Success

Considerable research has been conducted on the incremental or individual influences of cognitive skills, self-regulated learning skills, and attitudes toward education on the success of learners in many levels of educational inquiry. In addition, much work has been focused on predicting student success in the first year of college, or examining factors that promote retention only for the second semester or second academic year. This study expands the focus by specifically examining the interactive nature of these three broad domains of student characteristics over the course of the entire students’ experience in higher education. Specifically, this study examines seven years of institutional data exploring the predictive utility of measures of students’ cognitive skills, self-regulated learning skills, attitudes toward education, and academic anxiety prior to the start of their first semester on graduating GPA for anyone completing a degree within 6 years of matriculation. The resu...

1992

This study investigated the effects of college students' actual perceptions of success and control as they relate to cognitive and emotional aspects of academic achievement in situations utilizing either high or low instructor expressiveness. Participants included 140 male and female undergraduate introductory psychology students. In a simulated college classroom study, students wrote an aptitude test and were classified into Perceived Success (low, high) and Perceived Control (low, high) categories based on perceptions of success and control over performance. Students were then presented with either low or high expressive instruction, and completed a post-lecture achievement test and questionnaire. Exposed to low expres.:ye instruction, high success/high control students' achievement scores and low success/low control students' affects supported initial hypotheses (that such instruction tends to compensate for students' maladaptive cognitions). However, low success/lbw control students' achievement scores and high success/high control students' affects were opposite to initial expectations. Conclusions generally supported the idea that expressive instruction fostered both student achievement and self-confidence whereas low expressiveness depressed students' performance and their self-regulatory learning processes. (Included are 27 references.) (a)

International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 2015

2016

Our study is a replication of the Tracey and Sedlacek study that demonstrated non-cognitive attributes (such as self-concept and realistic selfappraisal) to be predictive of collegiate academic achievement and retention for black and white students, with more of the non-cognitive variables being significant for black student retention than whites. Tracey and Sedlacek’s work is based on a survey of students from across academic majors at a large, northeastern public university. Our investigation at a Historically Black University sought to determine the relationship between noncognitive attributes, retention, and academic achievement within the undergraduate engineering and computer science disciplines. Tracey and Sedlacek’s 23-item Non-Cognitive Questionnaire measured self-concept, realistic self-appraisal, racism understanding and response, long-range goal preferences, strong support person availability, successful leadership experience, community involvement, and nontraditional kn...

Research in Higher Education, 2005

Over the past decade, state legislatures have experienced increasing pressure to hold higher education accountable for student learning. This pressure stems from several sources, such as increasing costs and decreasing graduation rates. To explore the feasibility of one approach to measuring student learning that emphasizes program improvement, we administered several open-ended tests to 1365 students from 14 diverse colleges. The strong correspondence between hand and computer assigned scores indicates the tests can be administered and graded cost effectively on a large scale. The scores were highly reliable, especially when the college is the unit of analysis; they were sensitive to years in college; and they correlated highly with college GPAs. We also found evidence of ''value added'' in that scores were significantly higher at some schools than at others after controlling on the school's mean SAT score. Finally, the students said the tasks were interesting and engaging.

2008

The Non-Cognitive Attributes of First-Year At-Risk Students Who are Academically Successful and Retained at Old Dominion University Tisha M. Paredes Old Dominion University, 2008 Chair: Dr. Gwendolyn Lee-Thomas With a decrease in state and federal funding, higher educational institutions need to focus on retaining students. However, student retention is a multifaceted problem that requires varied solutions. Traditional measures, or cognitive measures, of student success, such as pre-college knowledge (SAT and high school grade point average) have not explained how higher education institutions retained students, especially students who are considered at-risk. Since the nature of student retention is idiosyncratic, research needs to focus on other measures, such as students' non-cognitive factors. Tinto has outlined non-cognitive factors, such as pre-college characteristics, goals and commitments, and institutional experiences, which influence students' academic success and r...

2011

In considering and evaluating approaches to the admission of college students, the usual approach is to try to measure past academic achievement and primarily verbal and math ability on the assumption that these abilities will predict subsequent college academic grades and achievement. Measures such as the SAT ® /ACT and high school GPA do predict classroom achievement . However, it is also the case that most universities claim to develop students in areas not well represented by classroom grades such as leadership, social responsibility, integrity, multicultural appreciation, and others. In an effort to develop noncognitive measures that would predict subsequent student performance, we began with a "job analysis" of the "job" of undergraduate students. We developed a list of expectations universities claim to have of students and derived a list of constructs that were hypothesized to be essential to success. This set of constructs has been central to the development of a set of biodata measures and a situational judgment inventory. We present evidence for the validity of these measures across two different studies. Also presented are standardized differences across various demographic subgroups. In general, our results show that these tools, along with traditional classroom achievement measures, provide a better representation of the totality of relevant college student outcomes.

Psychology in Russia: State of the Art

Background. Though many Russian and foreign studies have been devoted to the study of self-control in educational activity, most of the research has been limited to the use of questionnaires or psychodiagnostic methods. The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the process of cognitive control in the context of learning have still not been sufficiently understood, despite the obvious significance of controlling action for academic success. Objective. The purpose of this study is to identify the psychological and neurophysiological features of cognitive control in the process of learning activity, for students with different levels of academic success. Design. This study investigates the control function in first-year students who have varying degrees of academic success. The research design is interdisciplinary and integrates three different approaches: the neurophysiological, psychological, and pedagogical. In the empirical part, 31 first-year students at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU) participated in the research. We measured the personal characteristics of the subjects (using the five-factor personality questionnaire as modified by A.B. Khromov), their self-management ability (Peysakhov's SMA test), characteristics of the event-related potentials of the brain in response to presentation of stimuli in the solving of problems that require searching for an error in a word (electroencephalographic method), response time, and number of errors and corrections. Four types of stimuli were used: the correct spelling of a word, the replacement of a letter with one that is written similarly or sounds similar, or by one that is not similar. The indicators used to measure academic success were the results of the Unified State Examination (USE) and the first (winter) term of the 2016-17 academic year. The data were analyzed by correlation analysis and analysis of variance. Results. Comparison of groups of students with lower and higher levels of academic success showed significant differences in all the measured groups of variables-personality traits (Emotionality-Restraint factor), components of the system of self-management (Goal-Setting and Forecasting scales), behavioral data from the experiment (number of corrections), and neurophysiological indicators of cognitive control (the components P200, N200, P300, and N400). The results of the study revealed that students

Higher Education Extension Service Review, 1992

This review explores the factors of cognitive processing, style, and metacognitive organization as they contribute to academic success. Specific discussions consider aspects of shortand long-term memory, including how these affect learning and academic performance, and the keys to attaining long-term memory capability by involving redundancy, thinking patterns, and meaning. It is noted that arrangements emphasizing the relationship between ideas and materials enhance learning, and successful learning requires the storage of information in meaningful structures carefully related to learners' prior knowledge and experience. In addition, the article explains how encoding, practice, and cognitive style all work to enhance a student's ability to learn and offers insights on influencing each area to gain the best academic performance from the student. Finally, the process by which the brain organizes and monitors its cognitive resources is examined in relation to using strategies to aid intelligent performance, the success of which depends on the pursuit of the emotional, attitudinal, and motivational orientations promoting academic success. Contains 28 references. A brief Field Notes column (Carole Morning) describes Stress on Analytical Reasoning (SOAR), a program conducted jointly by Xavier University of Louisiana's mathematical, engineering, and sciences departments and designed to promote math and science curricula among selected minority engineering students.

1990

The problem of ill prepared college freshmen in remedial/developmental classes across the nation has significantly increased. At the same time, colleges and universities are increasingly concerned about college student retention. The study compared the belief structures of two groups: those enrolled in two remedial reading classes, and those involved in "honors" classes. Study results pinpointed emotional irresponsibility and motivation as two significant, non-intellectual differences between the two groups, and both cond.tions were noted as directly influencing success or failure in college. Student counseling and a focus on more personal responsibility agendas, in addition to reading rate/comprehension skill develcpment, are suggested as partial remedies. Contains six references. (GLR)

Research in Higher Education, 2005

Frontiers in Psychology, 2017

Previous research has shown that Need for Cognition (NFC), the individual tendency to engage in and enjoy cognitive endeavors, contributes to academic performance. Most studies on NFC and related constructs have thereby focused on grades to capture tertiary academic success. This study aimed at a more comprehensive approach on NFC's meaning to success in university. We examined not only performance but also rather affective indicators of success. The current sample consisted of 396 students of different subjects with a mean age of 24 years (139 male). All participants took part in an online survey that assessed NFC together with school performance and further personality variables via self-report. Success in university was comprehensively operationalized including performance, satisfaction with one's studies, and thoughts about quitting/changing one's major as indicators. The value of NFC in predicting tertiary academic success was examined with correlation analyses and path analysis. NFC significantly correlated with all success variables with the highest correlation for study satisfaction. Path analysis confirmed the importance of NFC for study satisfaction showing that NFC had a significant direct effect on study satisfaction and via this variable also a significant indirect effect on termination thoughts. This study clearly indicates that NFC broadly contributes to the mastery of academic requirements and that it is worthwhile to intensify research on NFC in the context of tertiary education.

Online Submission, 2009

This study reports the preliminary results from a field test of the College-readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS), a large-scale, 6th-12th grade criterion-referenced assessment system that utilizes classroom-embedded performance tasks to measure student progress toward the development of key cognitive skills associated with success in college. A sample of 1,795 students completed C-PAS performance tasks in English and mathematics at 13

Journal of Business & Retail Management Research, 2017

This research is built by using the basic of cognitive misfit theory (Chan 1996) which explains that the incompatibility between individuals cognitive style in problem solving and work demands will cause a decrease in performance. The previous research shown that cognitive style can affect the performance in variety of assessment methods (Au 1997) but up until now, not clear, however, is the impact of cognitive style on a student's accounting task performance. Besides, this research proposes that diminished performance will occur when there is incongruence between a student's cognitive style and the cognitive demands of an accounting task. This research used an experimental method, and examined for 60 students using a 2x2 between subjects experimental design. The result of this study shows that student's cognitive style will have no direct impact on his/her accounting task performance, and student's problem solving ability is directly related to his/her accounting task performance, but the effect of cognitive misfit not impacted performance on accounting task.