Interest and metacognitive word knowledge.

Abstract

It was hypothesized that students' metacognition would be enhanced on content that aroused situational interest or that was related to students' topic interests. A metacognitive evaluation procedure was used in which students estimated their word knowledge, which was then determined objectively by a multiple-choice vocabulary test. Students could then update their vocabulary knowledge by reading a passage dealing with heart disease in which all of the previously encountered words were defined explicitly or implicitly. With differences in prior knowledge controlled, nursing students, for whom the content was related to topic interests, made more accurate metacognitive judgments than did freshmen. None of the other main effects or interactions was significant. The implications of the findings for research on interest, its relationship to prior knowledge, and the assessment of metacognition are discussed.