Study Strategies Improve Metacomprehension Accuracy

• In Event: Strategies to Improve Metacognition

Abstract

Without intervention, students typically make inaccurate judgments of their understanding. College students viewed multimedia lessons on topics related to the human immune system. They served in one of three study strategy conditions before making knowledge judgments: the list group listed the main points of the lessons, the explanation group created an explanation to teach the material to another student, and the control group completed no strategy. Learning outcomes were measured with problem-solving transfer questions and multiple-choice retention questions. The control group’s learning judgments significantly predicted retention but not transfer. Both learning strategy groups’ learning judgments significantly predicted both retention and transfer. These results demonstrate that study strategies can increase metacomprehension accuracy with problem-solving transfer questions in a multimedia environment.

Authors

• Celeste Pilegard, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Richard E. Mayer, University of California - Santa Barbara