Primary School Students' Overconfidence When Judging Learning: Effects of Age and Accessibility Cues

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Division C Section 2a Poster Session 3: Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Children are overconfident when making judgments of learning (JOLs), and this is harmful for their learning outcomes. We aimed to investigate and explain primary school learners’ (3rd – 6th grade) overconfidence when studying concepts. Results show that JOLs of older children were less overconfident than JOLs of younger children. Further, for the older age groups, generation of a sentence led to more overconfidence than when the children were not able to generate a sentence. Interestingly, for the youngest age group, this pattern was different; they were generally more overconfident. Presumably, older children make more use of accessibility cues when judging learning, whereas younger children are more prone to a wishful thinking bias.

Authors

• Mariette Van Loon, University of Bern

• Anique De Bruin, Erasmus University

• Jimmie Leppink, Maastricht University

• Claudia Roebers, University of Bern