Student Perceptions of Attribution: Relationship between Academic Performance, Attribution Strategy, and Perceived Causal Attribution

Abstract

Abstract: Extant literature confirms that students adopt several learning strategies to improve their academic performance. Attribution, one of the two most influential learning strategies, is regarded as an important factor to understand students’ psychological characteristics related to their achievement. However, as previous studies mainly utilized self-report measurement, without emphasis on specific situations, it is unclear whether there is a significant relationship between a student's own attribution strategy, their perceived causal attribution in a specific context, and actual academic performance. To address this issue, the present study adapted the vignette experimental methodology, providing specific educational scenarios to students to measure their perceived attribution within that context. Results a significant relationship between individual attribution type, perceived causal attribution, and grade point average (GPA; as an indicator of academic performance). This finding demonstrates that, even in specific educational situations, students employ their own attribution strategy to infer causal attribution in given cases, and that this tendency is closely modulated by their GPA.