Approaches to Learning, Cognitive Style, and Motives as Predictors of Academic Achievement

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the relationship between approaches to learning (deep, strategic, and surface), cognitive style, motives, and academic achievement. A sample of 192 undergraduate psychology students with a mean age of 21.7 years participated. Motives and styles were related to the three approaches to learning in theoretically meaningful ways. Moreover, approaches to learning were found to predict academic achievement, while styles and motives only had indirect effects on achievement. Among the approaches to learning, the deep approach unexpectedly did not predict achievement, while the surface and strategic approaches as expected significantly predicted achievement.