Investigating cognitive capacity, personality, and epistemic beliefs in relation to science achievement

This study examined relationships among working memory, preference for rationality, epistemic beliefs concerning justification for knowing, and science achievement in a sample of 120 Norwegian lower-secondary school students. Results showed that working memory and preference for rationality were negatively related to beliefs in personal justification of knowledge claims in science and positively related to beliefs in justification by multiple sources and justification by scientific authority. After controlling for both working memory and preference for rationality in a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, justification beliefs still explained additional variance in science achievement, with beliefs in personal justification being a unique negative and beliefs in justification by scientific authority being a unique positive predictor. The study provides new evidence that epistemic beliefs may contribute to achievement over and above both cognitive capacity and personality factors, and theoretical as well as educational implications of these findings are discussed.