Interplay of metacognitive experiences and performance in collaborative problem solving

Abstract

Metacognitive experiences are the feelings and judgments that emerge in relation to an ongoing learning task. Much of the work on metacognitive experiences has studied these constructs piecemeal and mostly in individual learning settings. Thus, little is known about how metacognitive experiences co-occur in social learning settings. In light of this, we investigated the relationships between metacognitive experiences and their impact on perceived and objective task performance in a collaborative problem solving (CPS) simulation. Seventy-seven higher education students participated in the study. Metacognitive experiences (judgment of confidence, mental effort, task difficulty, task interest, and emotional valence) were measured with self-reports at multiple time points during CPS. A path analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between metacognitive experiences and perceived performance. A generalized estimating equation was used to observe the relationships between metacognitive experiences and objective group CPS performance. Overall, the findings indicate complex relationships among the metacognitive experiences and performance in CPS and further highlight the social characteristics of metacognition.