Cognitive, Metacognitive, Motivational, and Affective Differences Among Normally Achieving, Learning-Disabled, and Developmentally Handicapped Students: How Much Do They Affect School Achievement?

Examined the role cognition, metacognition, motivation, and affective states play in achievement outcomes. Eighty-eight fifth graders (30 normally achieving, 31 learning disabled, and 27 developmentally handicapped) participated in three individual sessions. Normally achieving students were superior to handicapped peers in all domains, whereas learning-disabled students performed comparably to developmentally handicapped students in all domains, except cognitive and metacognitive. The pattern of relations between these domains and achievement was not uniform among these. three populations of students as determined by partial correlations. Although intelligence proved to be the only significant factor in the achievement of normally achieving students, both intelligence and ratings of cognitive competence were strongly related to achievement for learning-disabled students. Achievement was strongly related to metacognition and adaptive language for the developmentally handicapped students. The implications of these findings are discussed.