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Developmental Improvements and Persisting Difficulties in Children’s Metacognitive Monitoring and Control Skills: Cross‐Sectional and Longitudinal Perspectives
Author(s) -
Bayard Natalie S.,
Loon Mariëtte H.,
Steiner Martina,
Roebers Claudia M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13486
Subject(s) - psychology , metacognition , retrospective cohort study , task (project management) , developmental psychology , control (management) , cross sectional study , cognition , psychiatry , medicine , artificial intelligence , management , pathology , computer science , economics
This study investigated age‐dependent improvements of monitoring and control in 7/8‐ and 9/10‐year‐old children. We addressed prospective (judgments of learning and restudy selections) and retrospective metacognitive skills (confidence judgments and withdrawal of answers). Children ( N = 305) completed a paired‐associate learning task twice, with a 1‐year delay. Results revealed improvements in retrospective, but not in prospective monitoring and control. Furthermore, control remained suboptimal, seemingly a consequence of overoptimistic monitoring. Both age groups showed stronger monitoring‐based control at the second compared to the first assessment. The comparison with a cross‐sectional sample ( N = 144) revealed that improvements in retrospective monitoring can be mainly attributed to naturally occurring development, whereas retrospective control seemed to improve due to increased task familiarity.