mirzabeigi, mahdieh and bahri, reihaneh The role of cognitive flexibility and openness to experience in predicting the information literacy level of Shiraz University students. Human Information Interaction, 2025, vol. 12, n. 1, pp. 79-94. [Journal article (Paginated)]
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English abstract
Introduction Given the important impact of information literacy in today's societies and in line with the efficiency of individuals, especially students, information literacy can be predicted and planned for its management through indicators. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the relationships between the variables of cognitive flexibility and openness to experience with the level of information literacy by examining students of Shiraz University, a university that enjoys a distinguished scientific position in the country and the results of this study may contribute to its scientific growth through further understanding of the factors affecting the information literacy of its students, and to test the extent of the impact of the two variables in predicting the level of information literacy of the said society, if a relationship exists. Methods and Materoal This research is descriptive in terms of data collection and quantitative in terms of data nature. The statistical population also includes students of Shiraz University in the academic year 1400-1401, about 17,000 people, and the sample size was calculated as 375 people using the Cochran formula. The members of the research sample were selected using convenience sampling. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire. To measure the level of information literacy, the research questionnaires of Seng et al. (2020), Pinto et al. (2020), and Lee et al. (2020) were used, based on the classification of the Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education (2016). To measure face and content validity, the questionnaire was sent to seven information science and knowledge experts, and the final version was obtained based on their opinions. The reliability of the research tool was obtained using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.937. To measure cognitive flexibility, the cognitive flexibility questionnaire developed by Dennis & Vander Wal (2010) was used, whose validity was measured by these researchers, and its convergent validity with the cognitive flexibility scale of Martin and Robin (1995) was 0.75. The reliability of this questionnaire was also obtained using Cronbach's alpha, which was 0.787. To measure openness to experience, the Big Five Personality Factors questionnaire by Goldberg (1999) was used, whose validity was proven in the Khormai study (2006) using factor analysis. The reliability of this questionnaire was obtained using Cronbach's alpha, which was 0.788. Pearson correlation tests, linear regression, and stepwise regression were also used to analyze the data. Resultss and Discussion in order to examine the power of each variable in predicting the level of information literacy, the correlation between the variables was first calculated through the Pearson correlation test, and the results showed that cognitive flexibility, openness to experience, and information literacy have a positive and significant relationship with each other. Then, a simple linear regression test was used to examine the role of cognitive flexibility in predicting the level of information literacy of the subjects, and the cognitive flexibility variable was entered as a predictor variable and information literacy as a criterion variable in the regression equation. The findings showed that the regression model of the predictive power of the cognitive flexibility variable on information literacy (F(1/278)=(43/682 p=0/000) with a coefficient of determination R2=/136 is significant. For each unit increase in cognitive flexibility, the information literacy score increases by 58/567 units. In other words, according to the calculated standard regression coefficient, cognitive flexibility explains 36/8 percent of the variance in information literacy (Table 2). Then, a simple linear regression test was used to examine the role of openness to experience in predicting the level of information literacy of the subjects, and the openness to experience variable as a predictor variable and information literacy as a criterion variable was entered into the regression equation and the findings showed that the regression model of the predictive power of the variable of openness to experience on information literacy is significant F(1/ 298) = (97/167 p = 0/000) with a coefficient of determination R2 = /246. For each unit increase in openness to experience, the information literacy score increases by 112/313 units. In other words, according to the calculated standard regression coefficient, openness to experience explains 49/6 percent of the variance in information literacy (Table 3). Finally, the stepwise regression test was used to predict the level of information literacy of users based on the variables of cognitive flexibility and openness to experience. The results of the stepwise regression test showed that among the predictor variables in the first step, the component of openness to experience was able to be the strongest The variable was significantly able to predict the level of information literacy of the subjects (p= /000). This variable alone was able to explain about 50/9 percent of the variance in the level of information literacy. In the second step, the variable of openness to experience explained about 43/1 percent of the variance in the level of information literacy, and cognitive flexibility was able to enter the model and explained 19/5 percent of the variance in the level of information literacy (p= /000). Accordingly, in total, the two variables of openness to experience and cognitive flexibility were able to explain 62/6 percent of the variance in information literacy (Table 4). Conclusion The results of this study can be an effort to improve the existing knowledge about information literacy and identify more factors that influence it. Also, the results of this study can help universities, with the help of information literacy experts, design curricula and training workshops to strengthen these components and improve the level of information literacy and to develop students who have higher information literacy and are prepared for future life and careers. Students, also aware of the important role of openness to experience and cognitive flexibility, can overcome the potential problems associated with their lack of information literacy by improving their level of openness to experience and cognitive flexibility by participating in workshops related to these components and also by increasing their information literacy skills by participating in workshops and information literacy training courses.  
| Item type: | Journal article (Paginated) |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Cognitive flexibility, openness to experience, cognitive characteristics, students of Shiraz University, prediction of information literacy level |
| Subjects: | D. Libraries as physical collections. > DC. Public libraries. |
| Depositing user: | HII Journal Human Information Interaction |
| Date deposited: | 30 Jan 2026 17:51 |
| Last modified: | 30 Jan 2026 17:51 |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10760/47558 |
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