工作記憶與知識論信念對批判思考技巧表現的預測力

The Prediction of Working Memory and Epistemological Belief in Critical Thinking Skills

本研究探討工作記憶與知識論信念對批判思考技巧表現的預測力。來自三所一般大學的160位大學部學生接受個別施測。迴歸分析及其他統計分析結果發現，第一，控制訊息處理速度之後，工作記憶廣度及執行功能顯著預測整體批判思考技巧表現，但知識論信念無顯著預測力。第二，進一步檢驗對批判思考各項技巧的預測力，僅工作記憶對推演結論及解釋技巧具有正向預測力。第三，本研究採用多種作業測量工作記憶，短期記憶及執行功能正向預測整體批判思考、推演結論及解釋技巧表現，僅一項涉及訊息儲存及處理的工作記憶具有正向預測力。短期記憶對批判思考技巧表現的預測力，並未低於Baddeley與Hitch（1974）所定義的工作記憶。第四，對知識結構抱持複雜信念者有較佳的批判思考技巧表現，此結果可以解釋整體知識論信念為何不具有顯著預測力。最後，工作記憶及知識論信念對批判思考技巧表現無顯著的交互作用效果。我們提出本研究結果在教學實務上的意涵並討論未來研究方向。

Critical thinking (CT) is one of the components contributing to good thinking (Norris & Ennis, 1989), It is also necessary ability for the citizens in democratic society. Especially in the age of the Internet, the variety and complexity of information are greater than in the past. CT is saliently significant. The perfect performance of CT was dependent on domain-general and domain-specific knowledge, CT skills and CT dispositions. Undergraduates reported to have great CT dispositions but performed medium degree of CT skills (Din, 2020). Therefore, it is important to design programs to advance students’CT skills under the considerations of the factors affecting CT skills performance. CT skills include evaluation of arguments, inference, interpretation, recognition of assumptions, and deduction. These cognitive operations are conducted in working memory (WM) (Halpern, 1998). Epistemological beliefs could affect CT performance (Schraw, 2001). We examined the prediction of WM and epistemological beliefs in CT skills. WM was involved in the processing and storing of information. A few researches showed that WM predicted the performance of reasoning tasks (Barrouillet & Lecas, 1999; Chuderski & Necka, 2012; Copeland & Radvansky, 2004). Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argued that WM had three components: A phonological loop, a visuospatial sketchpad, and the central executive. Individuals kept the speech or written information in the phonological loop. The central executive was responsible for attention control and thus helped the information related to the task keep accessible. We hypothesized that WM predicted the performance of CT skills. Short-term memory (STM) was different from WM, and was only involved in the processing of information. It was also hypothesized that STM predicted CT skills. Processing speed could affect reasoning performance and thus was used as a control variable in this study. We want to learn the net prediction of WM in CT skill performance after controlling the effect of processing speed.