LOCUS OF CONTROL AND INCIDENTAL LEARNING: AN APPLICATION TO COLLEGE STUDENT SUCCESS.

PSYCHOLOGY of college students; LOCUS of control; PERSONALITY & academic achievement

Three studies demonstrated the finding that, relative to external college students, those with an internal locus of control are more aware of goal-relevant aspects of their environment. Using "incidental" information such as knowledge of the instructor's office hours, points needed for an A, the date of the next exam, and the instructor's wife's name, a test of course-relevant trivia was constructed. In the first two studies, internals (measured on a brief IE scale) surpassed externals in trivial knowledge. A third replication used Levenson's (1973) full-length IE scale and again demonstrated the superiority of internals' incidental knowledge. These findings are presented to participants late in each semester as part of a lecture on locus of control, enhancing the perceived relevance of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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