Information literacy as a key to academic success: Results from a longitudinal study

Abstract

The present paper examines whether university students’ information literacy contributes to their academic performance over and above their level of general cognitive abilities. Fifty-three German psychology students (18–25 years, 85% female) participated in a longitudinal study with four waves of measurement spanning the first 18 months of their bachelor studies. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that scholarly information literacy (as assessed by a fixedchoice test of knowledge about information search and evaluation) predicted university grade point average as well as basic psychology knowledge even when controlling for fluid intelligence. According to additional simple slope analyses, information literacy was able to compensate for limited cognitive ability: Information literacy and academic performance were only associated in students with lower working memory capacity.