The effect of time pressure on metacognitive control: developmental changes in self-regulation and efficiency during learning

Gökhan Gönül,Nike Tsalas,Markus Paulus

doi:10.1007/s11409-021-09262-y

Gökhan Gönül, Nike Tsalas + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-021-09262-y

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Abstract

The effect of time pressure on metacognitive control is of theoretical and empirical relevance and is likely to allow us to tap into developmental differences in performances which do not become apparent otherwise, as previous studies suggest. In the present study, we investigated the effect of time pressure on metacognitive control in three age groups (10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and adults, n = 183). Using an established study time allocation paradigm, participants had to study two different sets of picture pairs, in an untimed and a timed condition. The results showed that metacognitive self-regulation of study time (monitor-based study time allocation) differed between age groups when studying under time pressure. Even though metacognitive control is firmly coupled at 10 years of age, the overall level of self-regulation of adults was higher than that of children and adolescents across both study time conditions. This suggests that adults might have been more sensitive to experiential metacognitive cues such as JoL for the control of study time. Moreover, the timed condition was found to be more effective than the untimed, with regard to study time allocation. Also, there was an age effect, with adults being more efficient than 10- and 14-year-olds.

Highlights

Most of the time we find ourselves in situations of time pressure when acquiring new knowledge
Before testing our hypotheses related to metacognitive control, namely whether participants allocated their study time based on their judgements of learning and efficiently allocate their study time, we checked the effect of our manipulations on the JoLs, recall, and study time allocation as exploratory/preliminary analyses
In the current developmental study, we investigated the effect of time pressure on metacognitive self-regulation in study time allocation as well as on the efficiency with which learners allocated their study time

Summary

Introduction

Most of the time we find ourselves in situations of time pressure when acquiring new knowledge. This is the case in our professional lives but is true for children and adolescents in educational settings Such time pressure might affect our metacognitively guided decisions, which involve the monitoring and control of our own cognitive processes (Flavell, 1971; Walczyk & Griffith-Ross, 2006). One line of research on metacognitive control, which has crucially shaped our understanding of the developmental pathway of these abilities, has focused on the amount of study time learners allocate to learning material of varying difficulty. At around 10 years of age, children, like adults, engage in self-regulated learning, defined as the extent to which learners allocate their study time in line with their own subjective monitoring judgments (e.g., Lockl & Schneider, 2003; Metcalfe & Finn, 2013)

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