Children’s monitoring in the context of memory and cognitive control

• In Event: Similarities and differences of metacognitive monitoring development in the context of cognitive control and memory

Abstract

There is an increasing theoretical and empirical interest in the development of higher-order cognitive processes, in particular, concerning children’s growing ability to monitor performance. Theoretically, monitoring one’s performance is central to the concept of metacognition, with monitoring informing any activity in self-regulated learning. Monitoring is also increasingly recognized as an important but often overlooked aspect of executive functioning and cognitive control (Roebers, 2017). The empirical evidence bringing these two strands of research together, however, is limited and inconsistent. As neurophysiological (maturational) and contextual factors (school enrollment) are known to influence both metacognitive monitoring and cognitive control, it was hypothesized that these kinds of monitoring undergo a similar developmental progression in the critical age range of 6- to 8 years.

Data will be presented from a sample of mostly Caucasian children (N = 215 children; N= 95 6-yr-olds in kindergarten; N = 120 8-yr-olds in 2nd grade; gender was equally distributed) living in a West European Country. Children completed two test sessions. In the first session, children did a paired-associates memory task with a recognition test and rated their confidence on a 7-point-Likert scale for each item. Measures of metacognitive discrimination and overconfidence were calculated. In the second session, children did the Heart and Flower task, a worldwide task used to quantify inhibition (Flower block) and cognitive flexibility (Mixed block) as components of cognitive control. Accuracy and speed of responding for each task block, but primarily post-error slowing as an indicator of error monitoring were used for the analysis.

Results revealed very similar age-related differences between the two groups. That is, younger as compared to older children were found to be less well able to metacognitively discriminate between correct and incorrect answers and were more overconfident. Similarly, younger as compared to older children were less fine-tuned and efficient in their slowing down after errors in the Heart and Flower task, independent of whether inhibition or cognitive flexibility were addressed (see Figure 2). Exploring whether monitoring skills share a common ground revealed an age-dependent pattern: while in the younger children, individual differences between metacognitive monitoring and error monitoring were not overlapping, there was significant overlap (correlation) between the two monitoring aspects in the 8-yr-olds. The discussion will address both, theoretical implications and yet open empirical questions.

Authors

• Claudia M. Roebers, University of Bern
  Presenting Author

• Sophie Wacker, University of Bern