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The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of self-efficacy on actual self-regulation during a verbal concept formation task of students, already known to be of average or above average cognitive ability, at two grade levels. Following the assessment of self-efficacy, students were observed while they attempted to solve four problems of varying difficulty. The major findings were that irrespective of differences in school grade and in cognitive ability, self-efficacy exerted significant influence on various aspects of self-regulation, such as monitoring of working time, task persistence, and rejection of correct hypotheses, as well as on performance. These results provided support for the construct validity of self-efficacy as different from cognitive competence.

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This study examines the influence of self-efficacy on the self-regulatory mechanisms exercised during a verbal concept formation task. High or low-self-efficacy is experimentally induced among sixty four college students who subsequently have to solve, aloud, different problems of concept formation. Self-regulation was examined based on the utilization of the cognitive strategies required to solve the task, the monitoring strategies applied over the cognitive enterprise and the metacogrutive experiences emerging along the resolution. Both groups exhibite similar cognitive strategies, yet some of their monitoring strategies and metacognitive experiences are affected by their self-efficacy judgments. The nature of self-efficacy should be considered when studying the relationship between metacognitive knowledge aqd self-regulation as applied during the task resolution.Le but de la prksente recherche est d'examiner quel rble joue le sentiment d'auto-efficaci ti5 dans l'au torCgula tion exercCe duran t l'exkcution d'une tiche cognitive. Contexte thdoriqueAprb avoir rappelt briivement les notions d'autortgulation et de sentiment d'auto-efficaciti, nous prkciserons ce qui, dam la thkone de * Cette recherche a kte facilitke par des bourses de doctorat accord& au premier auteur par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, le Fonds FCAR du Quebec, la Fondation Desjardins, et par des subventions de recherches du Fonds FCAR du Quebec et du Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et genie du Canada. T h C r k Bouffard-Bouchard, DCpartement de psychologje, UniversitC du Quebec A Montrtal, C.P. 8888, Succursale "A" Montrkd, P. Qutbec, H3C 3P8, Canada, Les demandes de tirb-&part doivent €tre adr& 0020-7594/88/$3.50 Q 1988, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland) 410 T. Bouffard-Bouchard. A. Pinard / Auto-efficaciti et autoriplation l'auto-efficacitk (Bandura 1986)' nous a amenks A examiner son influence potentielle sur divers aspects de l'autortgulation. L'autordgulution d'une ddmarche cognitivePrise dans son sens gknkral, l'autorkgulation signifie l'application et le contrale dklibtrts des rtgles et stratkgies utilisdes par un individu dans la poursuite d'un objectif (Brown 1982;Flavell 1981). Selon le modtle thdorique de la mktacognition ddveloppk par Lefebvre-Pinard et Pinard (1985)' qui senira de cadre de rdfkrence pour cette recherche, l'autortgulation comprend diverses dimensions dont les principales sont : (1) les strutdgies cognitiues particulitres requises pour l'exdcution d'une t k h e (i.e.'les moyens pris pour risoudre un probltime donnk) ;(2) les strutkgies rnttacognitiues de supervision (i.e. les moyens pris pour planifier, organiser, contraler, kvaluer et vtrifier la progression vers l'objectif); et (3) ce que Flavell (1981) a nommd les expkriences mktacognitiues (i.e. les pensies, sensations, ou sentiments survenant pendant m e ddmarche cognitive). Selon Lefebvre-Pinard et Pinard, ces expdriences constituent une forme de feedback interne conscient que se donne l'individu pendant sa ...

The aim of this study was (1) to examine the development of the influence of personal belief about the truth or falsity of conclusion deduced from syllogistic reasoning and (2) to determine whether a procedure of activation of previously established knowledge could improve reasoning performance. A total of 271 17year-olds and 21 5 university students were given one of a series of four paper-andpencil tests. The results indicated that the effect of belief on reasoning is greater among adolescents for logical forms having a valid conclusion (valid forms), but that belief-bias is greater among adults for logical forms with no valid conclusion (invalid forms). The activation procedure significantly improved performance both among adolescents and among adults, although the effects were limited. Finally, a relation was found between subjects' explicit knowledge of the empirical-logical distinction and their ability to reason with an abstract problem. The results were interpreted as indicating that the effect of belief on reasoning is not linear but involves a complex relation between reasoning Competence and task difficulty.The 'belief-bias effect' refers to the tendency to consider beliefs about the truth or falsity of a possible conclusion when evaluating its logical validity. Specifically, it has been claimed that people tend to accept believable conclusions and to reject unbelievable conclusions irrespective of the logical validity of the underlying arguments. The existence of such an effect was a subject of debate for a period after it was first reported, focusing mainly on methodological problems and possible confusion between belief-related effects and those due to other factors such as atmosphere effects and convertibility of premises (see Evans, 1982, for a review of these studies). However, recent studies using more tightly controlled methodologies (Evans, Barston & Pollard, 1983;Markovits & Nantel, 1989;Oakhill & Johnson-Laird, 1985) have clearly established that belief does affect the way that adult reasoners both evaluate and produce conclusions. Studies showing the existence of a belief-bias effect in the production of conclusions are particularly interesting, since they suggest that belief intervenes in an active way in the reasoning process.Requests for reprints.