How often are thoughts metacognitive? Findings from research on self-regulated learning, think-aloud protocols, and mind-wandering

Abstract

Metacognitive monitoring refers to how people evaluate their cognitive performance. An extensive literature examines how accurately individuals engage in monitoring. The question of how often individuals engage in metacognitive monitoring has been largely neglected, although one might expect situational, group, and individual variability in monitoring frequency. We argue that this is a critical omission, given that the frequency of metacognitive monitoring might have important implications for monitoring accuracy and task performance. Within this review, we highlight findings from three literatures, that each provide insight into how often individuals engage in monitoring. To clarify the important links and potential overlaps between these separate bodies of research, we begin by summarizing the metacognitive monitoring literature, including age-related patterns in monitoring accuracy. We then connect these questions regarding spontaneous monitoring, including age-related patterns in spontaneous monitoring, to targeted reviews of the self-regulated learning, think-aloud protocol, and mind-wandering literatures. We discuss situational and dispositional factors believed to influence monitoring accuracy, and propose that the same factors could potentially influence the frequency of spontaneous monitoring. Additionally, we propose that age-related increases in spontaneous monitoring (as suggested by age-related increases in TRI) may contribute to older adults' intact monitoring abilities. It is our hope that this review will encourage increased attention and research on the topic of spontaneous monitoring.

A Meta-Analysis Investigating the Association Between Metacognition and Math Performance in Adolescence

“…during learning, retrospectively during testing, or outside of the learning context altogether and via MC questionnaire scales), and the types of information the measures are intended to generate, variability between studies is not surprising. For example, offline measures reflect more stable trait-like characteristics indicating student awareness and potential use of MC strategies in their approach to solve math problems, while online measures capture thought processes associated with working through specific material (review by Jordano and Touron 2018). One important goal for optimising the potential for math achievement in school should focus on identifying MC strategies that will help students to identify areas of the curriculum that require additional attention or study (e.g., Son and Metcalfe 2000).…”

“…The results showed that MC control and monitoring were most evident when children were asked to complete complex math problems. In a review of think-aloud methods, Jordano and Touron (2018) also reported that children's use of MC strategy increased with more complex and open-ended mathematical tasks.…”

Mind-Wandering Changes in Dysphoria

“…Recent works (33,34) highlight the concept of meta-awareness (being aware of our current thinking) in the study of MW. Drescher et al (34) explored MW, meta-awareness, and cognitive control by three distinct tasks and showed that subjects with a higher metaawareness had a better cognitive control but detected less their MW.…”

“…Recent works ( 33 , 34 ) highlight the concept of meta-awareness (being aware of our current thinking) in the study of MW. Drescher et al.…”

Pain regulation during mindfulness meditation: phenomenological fingerprints in novice and expert practitioners

“…-Nov). This strategy is characterized by the integration of meta-cognitive knowledge about pain regulation (Jordano, Touron 2018) with a form of meta-cognitive monitoring centered on interoception. The belief that a flexible way to cope with pain works better than a rigid one stems from the evidence the more you let it go, the less you resist, the less pain affects you -Exp).…”