Examining the Potential Benefits of Affirming Values on Memory for Educational Information

First-generation students can experience a cultural mismatch between their values and those that colleges and universities tend to prioritize. This mismatch can increase cognitive load, leaving fewer resources available for learning. Effective and long-lasting learning requires actively processing new information and connecting it to existing knowledge-an effort that demands significant cognitive resources. Value affirmation exercises, where students select and reflect upon values that are important to them, have shown promise in reducing cultural mismatch and improving performance on cognitive tasks. However, the impact of these exercises on the learning and recall of new information is less clear. The current study investigated whether a value affirmation exercise, completed before reading an educational passage, would improve memory recall for that passage in a sample of 400 first-generation and continuing-generation young adults, as compared to not affirming. Our results failed to provide evidence that value affirmation exercises impacted recall performance, regardless of whether participants affirmed independent values, interdependent values, or both. Given the importance and implications of this outcome for student learning, we discuss possible explanations for these null findings and suggest future directions in affirmation research.