Pani, Mina Ketan. (2000). COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING AMONG HIGH AND LOW READING ACHIEVERS. Unpublished. ERIC, Education

Objectives of the study:

• To examine the differences in performance of High Reaching Achievers and low reading achievers on cognitive problem solving information processing measures,(i.e.,Reflective versus Impulsive information processing, simultaneous, successive and planning) teacher ratings of classroom behavior and different classroom achievement measures.

• To examine the difference in performance of two information processing groups (Reflective versus Impulsive information processing) on several cognitive problem solving information processing measures (i.e.,simultaneous, successive and planning), teacher ratings of classroom achievement measures in order to find out and compare the empirical support for motivational-effort deficiency hypothesis underlying R-I dimension.

• To find out the grade difference (Grade-3, Grade-4, Grade-5) on different cognitive problem solving information processing measures, teacher ratings of classroom behavior and classroom achievement variable in order to assess the developmental trend using a cross- sectional design. It is hypothesized that the higher grade children would perform better in all the reading, cognitive processing, teacher rating, achievement tasks in comparison to the lower grade children.

• To find out the pattern of relationship among the various cognitive processing variables and extract the common underlying themes/ factors (processes) from the several cognitive tests/ tasks used in the present study.

Sample:

300 hundred children,hundred each from Grade-3, Grade-4 and Grade-5 were taken as the sample.

Tools Used:

Reading test

Self-control Rating Scale

Matching Familiar Figure Test (MFFT₂₀)

Ravens Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM)

Figure Copying

Serial Recall

Digit Span Forward

Digit Span Backward

Visual Search

Achievement Measures

Academic achievement tasks in MIL

Design of the study:

The study involves 2x2x3 factorial between groups experimental design.

Statistical Techniques:

Mean, Standard Deviation, ANOVA, Pearson product moment correlation, Factor Analysis

Findings:

Results revealed that the main effect of reading achievement (high reading achievers vs low reading achievers) and R-I information processing (reflective - impulsive) had independent effect since no interaction effect since no interaction effect could be obtained. The high reading achievers outperformed the low reading achievers significantly on MFFT₂₀ figure copying and digit span. On the RCPM score and MFFT₂₀ mean latency score no significant difference was obtained. On the classroom achievement high reading achievers out performed the low reading achievers. Although, reflective information processing compared to impulsive information processing has been found to be a superior strategy in simultaneous processing, the same superiority could not be established in successive processing and planning. Reflective also established superiority on teacher ratings of classroom behavior and classroom achievement measures. The data revealed a developmental trend which showed that as the children grow older and move to the high grades, they follow the reflective strategy. They have better performance in cognitive measures. The classroom achievement in terms of percentage of marks, except drawing showed to be decreasing form grade-3 to grade-5. Correlational and principal component analyses following varimax rotation revealed three functionally independent factors which were identified as basic reasoning process, memory process and motivational process.

Keyword(s): Reading Achievement