The Regulation of Task Performance: A Trans-Disciplinary Review

Abstract

Definitions of meta-cognition typically have two components: (1) knowledge about one's own cognitive functioning; and, (2) control over one's own cognitive activities. Since Flavell and his colleagues provided the empirical foundation on which to build studies of meta-cognition and the autonoetic (self) knowledge required for effective learning, the intervening years have seen the extensive dissemination of theoretical and empirical research on meta-cognition, which now encompasses a variety of issues and domains including educational psychology and neuroscience. Nevertheless, the psychological and neural underpinnings of meta-cognitive predictions and reflections that determine subsequent regulation of task performance remain ill understood. This article provides an outline of meta-cognition in the science of education with evidence drawn from neuroimaging, psycho-physiological, and psychological literature. We will rigorously explore research that addresses the pivotal role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in controlling the meta-cognitive processes that underpin the self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies learners employ to regulate task performance. The article delineates what those strategies are, and how the learning environment can facilitate or frustrate strategy use by influencing learners' self-efficacy.

Combined Effect of Levels in Personal Self-Regulation and Regulatory Teaching on Meta-Cognitive, on Meta-Motivational, and on Academic Achievement Variables in Undergraduate Students

“…For this reason, partial models, which only focus on the student or on the teacher in an attempt to predict learning, to attribute responsiblities or to determine performance, should give way to conceptual and interactive models , like the one proposed here. In the light of this empirical evidence and of the Theory of Self vs. Externally-Regulation Learning (de la Fuente, 2015b ), it is just as essential to train university students to achieve high levels of self-regulation and self-control (Ramdass and Zimmerman, 2011 ; Bowlin and Baer, 2012 ; Hofmann et al, 2012 ; Vohs et al, 2012 ; Inzlicht et al, 2014 ; Koval et al, 2015 ; Clark and Dumas, 2016 ), as it is to train teachers to develop effective teaching strategies with a high level of regulatory teaching or contexts (Stehle et al, 2012 ) in order to enhance high performance level, especially in the procedural and attitudinal sense. Moreover, this model and its results may be extrapolated to some outcomes found in informal educational contexts (Weis et al, 2016 ).…”

“…The analysis of teaching processes and learning processes at university level has captured the interest of researchers in recent years in the field of Educational Psychology . In particular, considerable advances have been made in the knowledge of the roles that metacognitive, meta-motivational, and -affective processes play in university students (Gaeta and Teruel, 2012 ; Karabenick and Zusho, 2015 ; Clark and Dumas, 2016 ), as a consequence of taking on board Zimmerman's models of self-regulated learning in their most recent versions (Zimmerman and Labuhn, 2012 ; Bembenutty and Whitte, 2013 ; Bembenutty et al, 2014 ). However, while this vision has brought about notable progess in the study of self-regulation processes during university student learning, scant attention has been paid to an interactive relationships among the regulatory characteristics of the student who is learning and those of the instructional process of the teacher who is teaching.…”

Allostatic Self-efficacy: A Metacognitive Theory of Dyshomeostasis-Induced Fatigue and Depression

“…Self-efficacy can be defined as an individual's expectation of personal mastery and control: an individual with high self-efficacy believes that he/she can successfully perform the cognitive and motor operations required to overcome negative situations (e.g., obstacles, adversaries, threats, and aversive experiences). The construct of self-efficacy is thus closely related to concepts of metacognition (for review, see Clark and Dumas, 2015). Theoretical and empirical work suggests that low levels of perceived self-efficacy prevent the deployment of adequate coping behavior and may constitute an important component in the pathogenesis of depression and anxiety (Rosenbaum and Hadari, 1985; Bandura et al, 1996, 1999; Arnstein et al, 1999).…”

Individuality and Self-regulation in Preschoolers

“…Considering that the total score obtained in a task does not provide an explanation of what happens during the task's resolution, it is essential to study the association between self-regulation processes and task-performance profiles (i.e., individual differences in the ways children solved the tasks). These results would be useful not only to deepen the basic knowledge of development of self-regulation, but they would also be useful for the study of learning strategies, and for the design of educational and cognitive interventions (Clark/Dumas 2016). Furthermore, given that environmental experiences may modulate the development of self-regulation, we consider it essential to discover if there is a relationship between SES factors and the development of such processes (Hackman u.a.…”