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S ummary . Study processes are postulated to intervene between classes of presage variables (personological, institutional) and product variables (academic performance). Results from several studies indicate that particular study strategies are deployed with differing success according to certain personality factors, most notably a syndrome of characteristics related to internal or external locus of control. Institutional factors that have an effect on study behaviour include Faculty membership (Arts/Science), mode of evaluation (Objective/Essay), and method of combining marks for final grade. The interaction between personality and environmental factors as determining performance is, however, rather complex and no easy generalisations can be drawn, beyond saying that academic success is not achieved by any single study strategy; ‘good’ students work effectively in quite diverse but characteristic ways. Ten dimensions of study process have evolved as sub‐scales in a Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ), and they show a stable second‐order structure consisting of three orthogonal dimensions: Reproducing, Internalising and Organising. Each dimension comprises a unique version of the value‐motive‐strategy complex. Two different models of the interaction between dimensions are postulated together with implications for future research.
John Biggs (Wed,) studied this question.