Metacognition for spelling in higher education students with dyslexia: is there evidence for the dual burden hypothesis?

Michaël Stevens,Annemie Desoete,Wim Tops,Marc Brysbaert,Maaike Callens

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106550

Michaël Stevens, Annemie Desoete + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0106550

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Sep 5, 2014
Citations: 35	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Ghent University Hospital, University of Groningen

Abstract

We examined whether academic and professional bachelor students with dyslexia are able to compensate for their spelling deficits with metacognitive experience. Previous research suggested that students with dyslexia may suffer from a dual burden. Not only do they perform worse on spelling but in addition they are not as fully aware of their difficulties as their peers without dyslexia. According to some authors, this is the result of a worse feeling of confidence, which can be considered as a form of metacognition (metacognitive experience). We tried to isolate this metacognitive experience by asking 100 students with dyslexia and 100 matched control students to rate their feeling of confidence in a word spelling task and a proofreading task. Next, we used Signal Detection Analysis to disentangle the effects of proficiency and criterion setting. We found that students with dyslexia showed lower proficiencies but not suboptimal response biases. They were as good at deciding when they could be confident or not as their peers without dyslexia. They just had more cases in which their spelling was wrong. We conclude that the feeling of confidence in our students with dyslexia is as good as in their peers without dyslexia. These findings go against the Dual Burden theory (Krüger & Dunning, 1999), which assumes that people with a skills problem suffer twice as a result of insufficiently developed metacognitive competence. As a result, there is no gain to be expected from extra training of this metacognitive experience in higher education students with dyslexia.

Highlights

IntroductionGetting a degree in higher education depends on three groups of variables: adequate intellectual abilities, will to work (achievement motivation), and knowing how to study
Getting a degree in higher education depends on three groups of variables: adequate intellectual abilities, will to work, and knowing how to study
Metacognitive knowledge refers to beliefs about cognition stored in long term memory

Summary

Introduction

Getting a degree in higher education depends on three groups of variables: adequate intellectual abilities, will to work (achievement motivation), and knowing how to study. Metacognitive skills deal with the regulation of the cognitive processes needed for good performance They include (appropriate) effort allocation, time allocation, planning, executing the various steps towards the goal, checking the progress, adapting the modus operandi if necessary, and evaluating the outcome, so that lessons can be learned for future performance. Metacognitive experiences are based on previous involvements with the task at hand (or related learning conditions) They enable the learner to be better aware of the progress made [6] and to make use of alternative metacognitive skills if needed. They include memories of previous experiences with the task, estimates of efforts and time required for successful performance, feeling of difficulty of the task, and feeling of confidence in one’s own abilities

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