Where Does Knowledge Come From?: Specific Associations Between Print Exposure and Information Acquisition

In a study of 268 college students, measures of exposure to print predicted individual differences in knowledge in a variety of domains even after individual differences on 4 indicators of general ability (high school grade point average, Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices, Nelson-Denny Reading Test-Comprehension subtest, and a mathematics ability test) had been statistically controlled. Although correlational, our results suggest that print exposure is an independent contributor to the acquisition of content knowledge. The data challenge the view that knowledge acquisition is determined only by the efficiency of cognitive components that encode and store information. Instead, the results indicate that differences in exposure to information-particularly, written sources of information-is a significant contributor to differences in knowledge across individuals.