Young Children's Reports of When Events Occurred: Do Event Type and Assessment Method Matter?

Studying young children's reporting about when various events occurred informs about the development of episodic memory and metacognition. In two experiments, 55 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children participated in two activity sessions, a week apart. During the activity sessions, they learned novel animal facts and body movements, and they coloured animal pictures and posed for body movement photos. Immediately after the second activity session, children were interviewed about when they experienced the various events. Overall, children were as accurate about learning events as physical events, but they were more accurate when asked temporal distance (e.g. ‘Which did you learn a longer time ago, “X” or “Y”?’) than temporal location questions (e.g. ‘Which did you learn before today, “X” or “Y”?’). The results suggest that young children's apparent difficulty recognizing new learning is not due to a rapid ‘remember‐to‐know shift’. Rather, the way we ask young children about when they experienced various events determines their accuracy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

社会性线索对内隐和外显元认知监控的影响

本研究以词图匹配材料为学习材料,以“大多数人选择的情况”为社会性线索,通过分析行为表现和眼动指标,探讨了社会性线索对内隐和外显元认知监控的影响。结果显示：（1）第一次信心判断时,外显信心判断显著高估,内隐信心判断较为准确。第二次信心判断时,在线索一致条件下,外显信心判断等级显著高于内隐信心判断。（2）在提供社会性线索阶段和第二次再认阶段,与线索一致条件相比,线索不一致条件下被提示项的注视时间更短,而未提示项的注视时间更长,且个体改变选择的次数显著增多。结果表明：内隐和外显元认知监测存在分离,内隐监测的准确性更高,外显监测受社会性线索的影响更大;而内隐和外显的元认知控制受社会性线索的影响趋同。     

儿童计算的元认知监测及其对策略选择的影响

为了考察儿童在计算中的元认知监测及其对策略选择的影响,选用两种实验材料,对五种元认知监测判断的特点及监测判断对策略选择的影响进行考察,发现:儿童的元认知监测判断等级值总体上具有较高的一致性,元认知监测判断大多与策略选择高度相关,具有较好的预测力,但受材料、指导语等因素影响,又呈现出复杂的关系。本研究从一个侧面证实了元认知监控的基本假说和元认知监测判断的状态说。     

元认知训练的动机增强效应

如何激发学习动机是当前教育工作者、心理学研究者都很关注的一个问题。干预动机变量已经被证明是一种可行的方法,我们认为,认知干预也是激发学习动机的一种有效途径。为了检验这一假设,本研究对47名初二学生进行为期三周的数学元认知训练。差异显著性检验表明,在元认知训练中,被试的动机和元认知都有一定改善;路径分析进一步表明,元认知的改善导致了动机的改善。这一结论为动机激发这一现实问题提供了一条新思路,并且使我们对于元认知与动机的关系形成了更为全面的认识。     

Metacognitive scaffolding boosts cognitive and neural benefits following executive attention training in children

Interventions including social scaffolding and metacognitive strategies have been used in educational settings to promote cognition. In addition, increasing evidence shows that computerized process‐based training enhances cognitive skills. However, no prior studies have examined the effect of combining these two training strategies. The goal of this study was to test the combined effect of metacognitive scaffolding and computer‐based training of executive attention in a sample of typically developing preschoolers at the cognitive and brain levels. Compared to children in the regular training protocol and an untrained active control group, children in the metacognitive group showed larger gains on intelligence and significant increases on an electrophysiological index associated with conflict processing. Moreover, changes in the conflict‐related brain activity predicted gains in intelligence in the metacognitive scaffolding group. These results suggest that metacognitive scaffolding boosts the influence of process‐based training on cognitive efficiency and brain plasticity related to executive attention.     

学习不良儿童的元认知研究

元认知指有关认知过程的知识和对认知过程的调节。在学习不良领域,元认知理论无论在对学生内部加工问题的理解上还是在开发帮助学生获得学业成功的教学方法实践中,都具有重要意义。本文在回顾了这一领域的研究之后,指出一些基本问题仍未得到解决,未来的研究应围绕这些问题的解决展开,进一步揭示学习不良儿童元认知机制,整合认知、动机和情感因素,致力于将学习不良学生培养成自我调节的学习者。     

幼儿元认知知识发展的特点

以北京市某幼儿园5个班98名幼儿为被试,利用分类和拼图任务对其元认知知识进行了测试.结果发现:3～5岁幼儿在元认知知识的某些方面表现出了一定的发展变化过程,对主体性的元认知知识、任务难度的元认知知识和策略的元认知知识的认识表现出了显著的年龄差异,特别是内部策略的运用随着年龄的增长越来越多,而对外部策略的运用越来越少.     

Prospective Relations Between Dysfunctional Metacognitive Beliefs,Metacognitive Strategies,and Anxiety: Results From a Four-Wave Longitudinal Mediation Model

The metacognitive model of psychological disorders suggests that emotional disorders are related to maladaptive metacognitive strategies corresponding to underlying dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs. There is substantial empirical evidence supporting a role of metacognition in psychopathology, but fewer studies have evaluated the metacognitive model using longitudinal data and taken into consideration its differentiation between components and how they are hypothesized to be related to each other. Thus, more specific model evaluation is important as it relates to identifying mechanisms of disorder with a potential to provide clinical advances. In the present study, 868 participants took part in a 4-wave survey and reported on metacognitive beliefs and strategies and anxiety symptoms. Two longitudinal mediation models (forward and reversed causation) were run to test temporal precedence and bidirectional relations. The results indicated that metacognitive beliefs significantly predicted metacognitive strategies, which further predicted anxiety symptoms and mediated the indirect effect in the relationship between metacognitive beliefs and anxiety over time. The relationship between metacognitive beliefs and anxiety symptoms over time were bidirectional, but this relationship was not accounted for by metacognitive strategies. These findings largely support central predictions set forward by the metacognitive model and indicate that metacognitions play a preceding and maintaining role in anxiety.     

大中学生英语阅读的元认知策略发展及其民族差异比较

采用英语阅读的元认知意识问卷对云南省大学生,昆明汉族、丽江地区的纳西族和彝族中学生进行测查。结果表明：(1)大中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平随着年级的升高呈现出提高的趋势,从中学到大学是元认知策略水平快速发展的时期;(2)男女大中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平整体上具有一致性,但在中学阶段却呈现出女生略优于男生的趋势,到了大学,男女两性发展基本平衡;(3)汉族与纳西族中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平整体上具有一致性,彝族中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平呈现出优于汉族和纳西族的趋势。     

高中生数学元认知水平调查问卷的设计与编制*

对于元认知能力的评价和测试一直以来都是研究的难点,特别是就数学学科而言,已有研究多围绕数学问题解决过程中元认知监控水平的评价以及能力的培养展开,鲜有全面评价学生数学学习元认知水平的问卷。同时,没有针对高中生编制的元认知水平调查问卷。故本研究在已有研究的基础上,对已有的问卷进行修正和完善,通过征求专家意见与样本测试和数据分析,形成《高中生数学元认知水平调查问卷》。该问卷具有较好的内容效度和结构效度。信度方面,问卷整体的内部信度为0.952,分半信度为0.931,重测信度为0.946,说明问卷具有很好的内部一致性和测量稳定性。     

Metacognitive Judgments and Control of Study

ABSTRACT— Recent evidence indicates that people's judgments of their own learning are causally related to their study behavior and not epiphenomenal. I argue here that people use these metacognitions in an effort to selectively study material in their own region of proximal learning. First they attempt to eliminate materials that are already well learned. Then they progress successively from studying easier to more difficult materials. Successful implementation of this metacognitively guided strategy enhances learning. The necessary components are, first, that the metacognitions be accurate, and second, that the appropriate choices are implemented for study. With these parts in place, the individual is in position to effectively take control of his or her own learning.     

论元认知和智力的相互关系

元认知水平与智力活动之间关系密切。元认知由三部分组成：元认知知识、元认知体验和元认知技能,它与智力中的元成分、操作成分和知识获得成分密切相关。人知在人类智力因素中占有重要作用,是智力活动中的核心因素之一。智力也会影响元认知活动。它们之间相互影响、相互作用。     

Beliefs about Memory as a Mediator of Relations between Metacognitive Beliefs and Actual Memory Performance

The goal of the present study was to investigate relationships between personal beliefs about memory, metacognitive beliefs, and actual memory performance. One hundred thirty-seven participants' (aged 20 to 60 years) metacognitive beliefs were measured using the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ-30), memory beliefs were measured using the Personal Beliefs about Memory Instrument (PBMI), and an episodic memory task was used to measure actual memory performance, memory predictions, and postdictions. Younger adults had lower scores on the positive beliefs subfactor of the MCQ-30, higher scores on retrospective change and control subfactors of the PBMI, and outperformed middle-aged adults on recall and recall postdiction. Path analysis showed that individuals' beliefs about memory mediate the relationship between metacognitive beliefs and actual memory performance. Specifically, low lack of confidence (or less worry) in one's own memory and attentional capabilities was related to higher memory performance and positive personal beliefs regarding specific memory ability mediated relationship.     

Metacognitive Experiences and Human Judgment: The Case of Hindsight Bias and Its Debiasing

ABSTRACT— Theories of judgment have emphasized the influence of what comes to mind—the content of people's thoughts. But recent research shows that metacognitive experiences accompanying thinking, like a sense of the ease or difficulty with which information comes to mind, qualify the conclusions that people derive from thought content. The case of hindsight bias and attempts to remove that bias (debiasing) illustrate this. After an event outcome is known, people display hindsight bias by exaggerating its inevitability, believing they "knew it all along." The magnitude of hindsight bias varies with the ease or difficulty that known or alternative outcomes come to mind; the usually observed hindsight bias may even reverse when outcomes are difficult to bring to mind or increase when alternatives are difficult to bring to mind. Implications of metacognitive experiences can extend to other biases and their debiasing, as well as to how people make sense of the past more generally.     

问题解决策略的元认知研究

本研究旨在了解大学生对问题解决策略的理解。通过测试57名大学生对五种问题解决策略(自由产生、类推、逐步分析、形象化重构和整合)在三种情景(人际交往、实际生活和学习过程)三个维度(经常使用、有效性、易于使用)下的评估,发现大学生使用类推策略最多,自由产生策略最少。他们普遍认为这五种策略最适宜于用在学习情景中,在人际交往中的用处不大。这种结果在性别上没有显著性差异。另外．大学生认为几乎每一种策略都需要综合、分析、判断和推理四种思维能力,其中自由产生策略需要用到更多的能力,包括创造能力。     

The Effect of a Computerized Decision Aid on the Development of Knowledge

This study provides evidence on how the use of a computerized decision aid affects knowledge acquisition. While the intent of such computer-based decision aids is to improve and support unaided human judgments, it is unclear whether the use of the aids actually facilitate knowledge transfer. Seventy-six subjects completed a hypothetical decision task where one of two types of decision aids was used: an expert system or traditional textual materials. Results suggest that those using a computer-based decision aid acquired and encoded in memory less declarative knowledge than those using textual reference materials. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Inside the Creative Sifter: Recognizing Metacognition in Creativity Development

The parallels between cognitive development and creativity are neglected in the literature. Piaget's information transformations are personalized, meaning individual constructions can involve creativity. Vygotsky's work considers the implications and interactions of social influences, conventions, and personal implications for creative development. The Cognitive‐Creative Sifting Model is proposed to focus attention on these and other connections between cognitive development and creativity. Other common methods of assessing creativity are compared to the proposed model. It is argued that the model provides a foundation to evaluate individual creative potentials more holistically. Specifically, the conceptual elements of metacognition are described and their role in the development of creativity is suggested. It is argued that future researchers should pay particular attention to the interaction effects metacognition has with traditional measures of creativity focused on ideation and product evaluation.     

Knowing who knows: Metacognitive and causal learning abilities guide infants’ selective social learning

Given the widespread interest in the development of children's selective social learning, there is mounting evidence suggesting that infants prefer to learn from competent informants (Poulin‐Dubois & Brosseau‐Liard, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2016, 25). However, little research has been dedicated to understanding how this selectivity develops. The present study investigated whether causal learning and precursor metacognitive abilities govern discriminant learning in a classic word‐learning paradigm. Infants were exposed to a speaker who accurately (reliable condition) or inaccurately (unreliable condition) labeled familiar objects and were subsequently tested on their ability to learn a novel word from the informant. The predictive power of causal learning skills and precursor metacognition (as measured through decision confidence) on infants' word learning was examined across both reliable and unreliable conditions. Results suggest that infants are more inclined to accept an unreliable speaker's testimony on a word learning task when they also lack confidence in their own knowledge on a task measuring their metacognitive ability. Additionally, when uncertain, infants draw on causal learning abilities to better learn the association between a label and a novel toy. This study is the first to shed light on the role of causal learning and precursor metacognitive judgments in infants' abilities to engage in selective trust.     

A Brief History of Metacognitive Therapy: From Cognitive Science to Clinical Practice

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is proving to be an effective treatment for anxiety and depression with effects that may exceed CBT. It has been described as a paradigm shift in psychotherapy in its theory-driven cognitive science approach and systematic development and evaluation. MCT was developed by Adrian Wells based on an information processing theory, the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model by Wells and Matthews. MCT theory formulates psychological disorders as sharing common causal factors under the influence of metacognition, representing a particular top-down model of biases in cognitive regulation. A key clinical implication was that a core set of interventions could be developed to impact a wide range of symptoms and disorders. In this paper, we trace the historical development of MCT and the major studies that informed theory and practice with the aim of introducing clinicians and researchers to this area and to understand why the metacognitive approach has developed into a treatment that is proving to be potentially more effective than current gold-standard treatments. In doing so, we will draw out the distinctive features of the approach and explore how this might offer a blueprint for scientific advancement in clinical psychology and psychotherapy.     

元认知的神经机制:元认知功能、脑区与脑网络

元认知是指个体对当前进行的认知活动的监测和调节。通过对元认知神经机制研究的梳理,归纳出两条研究主线:一条主线以具体元认知加工的脑区激活研究为主,主要考察元认知与认知过程的分离及典型元认知加工的共享性和特异性。研究发现元认知加工主要与前额叶有关,还涉及脑岛、顶叶、颞叶和楔前叶等部分脑区。另一条主线探讨广泛的元认知功能与广泛大脑网络的相关。研究提出了大脑的“元认知网络”的概念,发现脑损伤或病变造成的元认知功能损伤与脑功能网络有关,而非固定在某一特定脑区。建议未来的研究应重视四个方面的研究:元认知加工的具体脑区和脑功能网络,元认知神经机制的分离,元认知脑功能的损伤和元认知训练的改善作用,以及基于神经机制研究的元认知模型的建构与修正。