Study Abroad Enhances Cognitive Development

Abstract

The authors examined the influence of study-abroad participation on the cognitive development of students across 17 institutions. Even after adjusting for several important potential confounding influences such as student precollege characteristics, college academic and nonacademic experiences, study-abroad intent, and a pretest measure for each outcome measure, the authors found that study-abroad participation enhanced students’ end-of-4th-year critical thinking, need for cognition, and positive attitudes toward literacy.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Our secondary analyses of these findings suggested that among those with previous international travel experience, respondents’ overall score on the posttest measure of intellectual development (M = 3.10, SD = 0.34) was slightly lower than their pretest score (M = 3.12, SD = 0.35), t(186) = 0.39, p = 0.69. Among those without previous international travel experience, respondents’ overall score on the posttest measure of intellectual development (M = 2.99, SD = 0.29) was slightly higher than their pretest score (M = 2.93, SD = 0.38), t(104) = −0.92, p = 0.36. These analyses reveal that the change from pretest to posttest for either group was not statistically significant.

Additional information

Funding

This research is based on a grant from the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College to the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education at the University of Iowa.