The Role of Previous Experience and Attitudes Toward Statistics in Statistics Assessment Outcomes among Undergraduate Psychology Students

Figures & data

Table 1. Change in SATS Scores

SATS Scale	Time 1			Time 2
	Possible Range	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	P
Affect	6 to 42	20.83	6.50	22.02	7.71	.167
Cognitive	6 to 42	26.44	6.49	25.48	6.31	.175
Competence
Value	9 to 63	46.48	7.95	42.02	9.38	<.001
Difficulty	7 to 49	23.71	5.97	23.05	5.83	.327

Table 2. Correlations between perception of maths ability, previous experience of computers and statistics and SATS Scores

	perception of maths ability	previous computer experience	previous statistics experience	SATS Affect Year 1	SATS Cognitive Comp Year 1	SATS Value Year 1	SATS Difficulty Year 1	SATS Affect Year 2	SATS Cognitive Comp Year 2	SATS Value Year 2	SATS Difficulty Year 2
computer experience	.095
statistics experience	.240*	.156
SATS Affect Year 1	.476‡	.169	.344‡
SATS Cog Comp Year1	.508‡	.161	.310‡	.708‡
SATS Value Year 1	.206	.124	.119	.196	.380‡
SATS Difficulty Year 1	.310‡	.216	.183	.657‡	.552‡	.233*
SATS Affect Year 2	.372‡	.157	.274*	.413‡	.483‡	.196	.366‡
SATS Cog Comp Year2	.378‡	.174	.226*	.392‡	.510‡	.256*	.265*	.748‡
SATS Value Year 2	.199	.053	−.052	.168	.266*	.402‡	.094	.260*	.453‡
SATS Difficulty Year 2	.140	.161	.138	.223*	.251*	.296‡	.475‡	.501‡	.438‡	.205
Assessment 2 Year 2	.215	−.158	.059	.013	.090	.121	−.050	.233*	.305‡	.231*	−.052

* p < .05;

‡ p < .01

Table 3. Predicting Cognitive Competence at Year 2

				B	SE	Beta	t	p
Step 1	R^2	=	0.16; F(2,80) = 7.650, p = .001
			Constant	14.301	2.941		4.862	<.001
			Perception of maths ability	1.998	.617	.343	3.238	.002
			Previous statistics experience	.543	.401	.144	1.355	.179
Step 2	R^2	=	0.29; F(6,76) = 5.074, p < .001
			Constant	8.442	4.313		1.957	.054
			Perception of maths ability	.850	.673	.146	1.263	.211
			Previous statistics experience	.207	.396	.055	.524	.602
			Affect at year 1	.053	.157	.055	.340	.735
			Cognitive competence at year 1	.371	.149	.381	2.480	.015
			Value at year 1	.061	.085	.077	0.719	.474
			Difficulty at year 1	−.058	.139	−.055	0.414	.680

Table 4. Predicting Cognitive Competence at Year 2 — testing for mediation

				B	SE	Beta	t	p
Step 1	R^2	=	0.12; F(1,81) = 11.140, p = .001
			Constant	16.257	2.824		5.757	<.001
			Perception of maths ability	1.972	.591	.348	3.338	.001
Step 2	R^2	=	0.24; F(2,80) = 12.470, p < .001
			Constant	11.779	2.939		4.008	<.001
			Perception of maths ability	.741	.656	.131	1.131	.262
			Cognitive competence at year 1	.383	.110	.405	3.500	.001

Table

Very poor						Very good
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Table

None						Great deal
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Table

None						Great deal
1	2	3	4	5	6	7