Poster #31 - Monitoring as an overlap/a common ground of executive functioning and procedural metacognition in late childhood

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Executive function (EF) and metacognition (MC) both belong to the broader concept of self- regulation, and embrace behavioral and cognitive mental processing (Roebers,2017). Within both concepts, monitoring is assumed to enable to control behavior by strengthening learning efficiency or optimizing performance (Metcalfe & Finn, 2013). Traditionally, monitoring has been investigated primarily in the context of procedural metacognition (Nelson & Narens, 1994), but what about monitoring in EF? The few existing studies investigating monitoring within the EF framework, addressing post-error slowing (PES), describe the phenomena that individuals tend to slow down in their task mastery after having committed an error and is thus considered as the behavioral correlate of error monitoring (Lyons & Zelazo, 2011). Existing studies on PES in children suggest a developmental change in the age range of 7 to 16 years, with larger PES for younger compared to older children (Kramer, Humphrey, Larish, Logan, & Strayer, 1994). Examining these two higher-order processes, EF and MC, with a special focus on monitoring, has rarely been done. Therefore, the current study will give more insights into the processes of implicit and explicit monitoring skills in older children and young adolescents.

The sample consisted of 102 children from three age groups (10-, 12-, and 14-year-olds). PES was assessed in two classical inhibition EF tasks (Simon task, Fuit-Stroop task). Post-error slowing is systematically investigated by comparing reaction times (RT) after committing an error with RT after correct responses. Monitoring in metacognition was measured by a paired associate learning task (Kanji-task) with participants giving confidence judgments (CJ) on a 7-point Likert scale immediately after completing the recognition test. RT of responses in the recognition test were also examined for measuring choice latency (hesitation).

The results suggest similarities and differences among the two higher processes. The findings in two classical executive functioning tasks revealed significant post-error slowing down in all three age groups. Furthermore, PES varied with age, with younger children showing larger PES compared to older children, possibly pointing to a speed-accuracy trade off. In the recognition test of the paired associate learning task all three age groups showed larger RT for incorrect than for correct answers, which indicates hesitation in uncertainty. Regarding metacognitive monitoring within the learning task, all three age groups showed reliably higher CJ for correct than for incorrect answers. Additionally, this metacognitive discrimination ability improved with higher age. Furthermore, our findings propose an independence of implicit and explicit monitoring skills in EF and MC with increasing age, possibly due to the development in domain specific pathways. Taken together, more research in the concept of implicit and explicit monitoring is needed to examine its development in older children.

Authors

• Qendresa Thaqi, University of Bern
  Presenting Author

• Claudia Roebers, Bern University
  Non-Presenting Author