Relationship Between Cognitive Biases and Reading Comprehension among College Students

Abstract

With reading comprehension skills continuing to decline globally and locally, understanding the cognitive factors that are associated with it has become increasingly important. This study explored the relationship between cognitive biases and reading comprehension among 62 second-year Bachelor of Secondary Education students at Partido State University-College of Education. Using a descriptive-correlational design, the research aimed to describe the relationship between students’ susceptibility to six cognitive biases—anchoring bias, confirmation bias, cognitive overload bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect, the illusion of truth effect, and the recency effect—and their reading comprehension levels. Data were collected through an expert-validated 5-point Likert scale questionnaire and secondary data from the university’s Reading Center. Statistical analysis revealed that while students demonstrated varying levels of susceptibility to specific cognitive biases, no statistically significant relationship was found between these biases and their reading comprehension levels. These findings suggest that while cognitive biases may influence how students engage with texts, they do not directly predict reading comprehension performance in this sample. The study underscores reading as a complex cognitive task and recommends continued research into other contributing factors, such as metacognitive awareness, language proficiency, and motivation, to better support student literacy. Future studies may consider alternative methods or mixed designs to explore this relationship more comprehensively.