Affective and Conative Factors as Aptitude Resources in High School Science Achievement

This article examines the role of affect and conation in high school students' science test performance. It provides a profile of partial correlations of standardized multiple-choice and constructed response test scores with affect and conation scores (after accounting for general ability and student background) at 3 distinct levels of generality: domain-specific, task-general, and situation-specific. Results show differential patterns of correlations, varying with level of generality of affective and conative constructs, and with different aspects of science achievement represented by the dimensions of basic knowledge and reasoning, quantitative science reasoning, and spatial-mechanical reasoning. The discussion invokes several theoretical frameworks to interpret these results. The article concludes by stressing the need for empirical and theoretical integration in the study of academic task performance.

[1]  Haggai Kupermintz,et al.  Enhancing the Validity and Usefulness of Large-Scale Educational Assessments: III. NELS: 88 Mathematics Achievement to 12th Grade , 1997 .

[2]  Charles D. Spielberger,et al.  Understanding Stress and Anxiety , 1980 .

[3]  R. C. Durfee,et al.  MULTIPLE FACTOR ANALYSIS. , 1967 .

[4]  E. Hilgard.  The trilogy of mind: cognition, affection, and conation. , 1980, Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences.

[5]  Richard E. Snow,et al.  Aptitude Theory: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow , 1992 .

[6]  J. Spence,et al.  Achievement and achievement motives : psychological and sociological approaches , 1984 .

[7]  J. Kuhl,et al.  Chapter 17 Volition and Self-Regulation:Memory Mechanisms Mediating the Maintenance of Intentions , 1989 .

[8]  Ellen B. Mandinach,et al.  Remaking the Concept of Aptitude: Extending the Legacy of Richard E. Snow , 2001 .

[9]  J. Eccles.  Expectancies, values and academic behaviors , 1983 .

[10]  B. Weiner,et al.  Theories and principles of motivation. , 1996 .

[11]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[12]  Jutta Heckhausen,et al.  Motivation and action , 1991 .

[13]  Richard E. Snow,et al.  Cognitive-conative aptitude interactions in learning. , 1989 .

[14]  E. Michael Nussbaum,et al.  Interview Procedures for Validating Science Assessments , 1997 .

[15]  Marc H. Bornstein,et al.  Social, emotional, and personality development , 1988 .

[16]  D. Jackson,et al.  Individual differences in affective and conative functions. , 1996 .

[17]  Patricia A. Alexander,et al.  Superimposing a situation-specific and domain-specific perspective on an account of.. , 1995 .

[18]  G. Bower.  Mood and memory. , 1981, The American psychologist.