Psychology Students’ learning strategies: An exploratory study

Abstract

In this study we aim to characterize the learning strategies used by psychology undergraduates in their first to fourth year. The participants were 155 students who responded to the LASSI questionnaire and the Reading Strategies Scale. We analyzed the data using Analysis of variance (ANOVA), the Student's t test, and Pearson correlation. We observed that first-years had higher scores in categories regarding attitude, motivation, concentration, proof reading strategies and time management when compared to students of higher years. We identified significant positive association among all categories of study and reading strategies. We conclude that interventions on the use of motivational strategies to help students assess the value they attribute to their university, to their course, and to help them set goals, based on what the university and the course can provide them seems to be especially promising.