The Prediction of College Course Performance From Reading Comprehension Performance: Evidence for General and Specific Prediction Factors

Abstract

Recent theories of comprehension and learning have grown so similar that it is difficult to tell one from another. An implication of this similarity is that it should be possible to devise one type of comprehension test that can predict learning performance in general and another type of comprehension test that can predict specific types of learning. Two experiments are reported that confirm these implications. In Experiment 1, comprehension tests accounted for up to 36% of the variance in overall college performance and up to 30% of the variance in specific course performance. Experiment 2, which used a different type of comprehension test, showed that the test predicted performance in a specific course but did not predict overall college performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.