Relations between parental metacognitive talk and children’s early metacognition and memory

Abstract

After decades of research suggesting that metacognition—that is, processes whereby people monitor and regulate their cognitive performance—did not emerge and is not related to children’s performance until late childhood, recent studies have provided evidence that even preverbal infants can access their internal states. The existence of this basic metacognition raises the question of the variables influencing its development at such a young age and whether such early skills could predict successful cognitive performance. The current study had two main goals: (a) exploring the relation between parental metacognitive style and children’s early metacognition and (b) determining whether these early metacognitive skills can predict children’s memory performance. To this end, 2.5- to 4.5-year-old children (N = 72) and their parents were recruited. To assess parental metacognitive style, parent–child dyads were invited to participate in a 15-min session during which they played memory games. The parents’ speech during this session was later coded for metacognitive content. Children’s memory was assessed using cued recall and recognition tests. During one of these recognition tests, participants had the opportunity to ask for a cue to help them decide whether their response was correct (i.e., metacognitive measure). Results revealed that parental metacognitive style predicted both children’s metacognitive accuracy and memory performance. Interestingly, a mediation effect of children’s metacognitive skills on the relation between parental style and memory performance was found. These findings suggest that environmental factors such as parental metacognitive style are related to children’s early metacognition, which in turn is linked to children’s memory development.