Metacognitive Functions Research Articles

Functions of Repetition in Learners' Private Speech in Japanese Language Classrooms

Studies investigating repetition in SL/FL learners' private speech have focused mainly on its cognitive and metacognitive functions. In the present study, the classroom observations, video-recordings of lessons, audio-recordings of six learners and two teachers and simulated recall interviews were conducted in Japanese language classes over two semesters. Repetition was found to have not only cognitive and metacognitive functions such as processing and monitoring, but also social and affective functions such as increasing learners' involvement and enjoyment. Repetition appears to promote learners' participation in both classroom and conversational situations.

Metacognition in chemical education: question posing in the case-based computerized learning environment

Posing questions about an article might improve one’s knowledge—a cognitive function, or monitor one’s thought processes—a metacognitive function. This study focuses on guided question posing while using a metacognitive strategy by 12th grade honors chemistry students. We investigated the ways by which the metacognitive strategy affected students’ skills to pose complex questions and to analyze them according to a specially designed taxonomy. Our learning unit, Case-based computerized laboratories, emphasizes learning through chemical case studies, accompanied by tasks, that call for posing questions to which the answer cannot be found in the text. Teachers equipped their students with a metacognitive strategy for assessing the quality of their own questions and characterizing them according to a three-component taxonomy: content, thinking level, and chemistry understanding levels. The participants were 793 experimental and 138 comparison chemistry students. Research instruments included interviews and case-based-questionnaires. Interviews with students revealed that using the metacognitive strategy the students had been taught, they were capable of analyzing the questions they generated with the taxonomy. The questionnaires showed that students significantly improved their question posing skill, as well as the complexity level of the questions they posed. A significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group students. Stimulating students to generate complex questions with a metacognitive strategy in mind enabled them to be aware of their own cognitive process and to self-regulate it with respect to the learning task.

Metacognition in Schizophrenia

Deficits in metacognitive capacity, or the abilities to think about thinking, are thought to be a key barrier to functioning in schizophrenia. Although metacognitive function may be linked to executive function, it is unclear how the different domains of each phenomenon are related to one another. Accordingly, we assessed 4 domains of metacognition on the basis of a self-generated narrative using the Metacognition Assessment Scale. These were correlated with subtests of the Delis Kaplan Executive Function System which assessed 2 domains of executive function: mental flexibility and inhibition. Participants were 49 men with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in a postacute phase of illness. Spearman Rho correlations revealed awareness of one's thoughts and feelings were more closely linked to performance on tests which required mental flexibility while recognizing others' needs, and independent relationships were more closely linked to performance on tasks which required inhibitory control. Results suggest different domains of metacognition may be influenced by and influence different neurocognitive processes.

Attachment disorganization and borderline patients’ metacognitive responses to therapists’ expressed understanding of their states of mind: A pilot study

This study explores the relationship between psychotherapists’ validation interventions and patients’ metacognitive responses at the beginning of treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD). A model of BPD based on disorganized attachment provides the hypothesis that, before patients’ internal working model of attachment has been corrected within the therapeutic relationship, therapist interventions that are likely to activate patients’ attachment system are also likely to induce temporary disorganization of patients’ metacognitive functions. Any validation intervention implies that therapists openly display an understanding and accepting attitude when they comment on patients’ reported experiences and is, therefore, likely to activate the patients’ attachment system. Linehan's (1993) manual of dialectic–behavioral therapy (DBT) was used as a guideline to assess validation interventions adopted by therapists. The transcripts of the second individual session in the psychotherapy of 19 consecutive patients were analyzed. Checklists based on the DBT manual were used to identify therapists’ validating, supportive, and neutral interventions. The Metacognitive Assessment Scale was used to assess changes in specific aspects of patients’ metacognitive processes during therapeutic dialogues. Following validation interventions, patients’ responses revealed significantly higher rates of temporary metacognitive failure in comparison to the responses solicited by neutral intervention.

Metacognition and Reflexivity in Patients with Schizophrenia

Background: Many patients with schizophrenia demonstrate a lack of insight into their disorder and often do not complain about their cognitive impairments. This might be due to generally reduced metacognitive abilities. Sampling and Methods: Twenty-seven patients with a DSM IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and 19 healthy control subjects performed 2 separate tasks tapping into metacognitive functions. In the first experiment the participants encoded words. In the following recognition part they judged their level of subjective confidence in the correctness of their answer. In the second experiment reaction time was measured, whilst judgments were made about personality trait adjectives describing the subjects themselves or other familiar people. Results: Although the recognition rate in the first experiment was equal between the groups, the patients showed a significantly reduced ability to correctly judge their memory performance. There was no correlation between metamemory and psychopathology nor insight measures. The patients further needed significantly more time to characterize themselves compared to the healthy participants. The response rates for self-characterization correlated with the ability to recognize symptoms as part of a disorder but did not correlate with psychopathology. Conclusions: Metacognitive faculties seem to be, at least in part, a separable cognitive entity. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate impaired metacognitive capacities, independent of current symptoms or memory performance.

Self–Regulation and Mathematics Instruction

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of research–based interventions that incorporate self–regulation strategies to improve mathematics performance of students with learning disabilities (LD). Self–regulation is a metacognitive function essential to academic success. Students with LD are notoriously poor at self–regulation and must be taught explicitly to monitor and control their cognitive activities as they engage in academic tasks such as mathematical problem solving. This article describes intervention studies that use self–regulation strategies to improve mathematics performance of students with LD at the elementary, middle, and secondary school levels. Several techniques to facilitate effective implementation of self–regulation instruction in the classroom are presented.

Primary and Secondary Anosognosia for Memory Impairment in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

The neuropsychology of anosognosia for memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) was examined in 92 AD patients and 92 case matched individuals for comparison, using three quantitative methods of assessment: Experimenter Rating Scale (ERS), Objective Judgement Discrepancy (OJD) and Subjective-Rating Discrepancy (SRD). The OJD showed significant domain specific correlations with memory functioning as well as a significant correlation with susceptibility to intrusional errors. Memory or executive dysfunction may affect the immediate ability to judge cognitive performance in a domain specific manner (secondary anosognosia). Longer-term awareness of cognitive deficit appears less influenced by impaired basic cognitive functions, than by the decline of metacognitive function (primary anosognosia).

Insight in psychosis and neuropsychological function

One factor contributing to impaired awareness of illness (poor insight) in psychotic disorders may be neurocognitive deficits. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted after data extraction. Following an overall analysis, in which measures of different cognitive domains were taken together, more fine-grained analyses investigated whether there was a specific relation with frontal executive functioning, and whether this was influenced by diagnosis or the insight scales used. There was a significant mean correlation between insight ratings and neurocognitive performance (mean weighted r=0.17, 95% CI 0.13-0.21, z=8.3, P<0.0001), based on 35 studies with a total of 2354 individuals. Further analyses revealed that the effect of general intellectual impairment was smaller than the specific association with executive function. This was only the case for psychosis in general, and not in an analysis limited to schizophrenia, where all cognitive domains were associated with impaired insight to a similar degree. Neuropsychological dysfunction, specifically impairment of set-shifting and error monitoring, contributes to poor insight in psychosis. Specific relations with different dimensions of insight and the putative role of metacognitive functions require further study.

What is Metacognition?

MICHAEL E. MARTINEZ is an associate professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine. THE DISCOVERY and theoretical elaboration of metacognition constitute a major breakthrough in recent decades of cognitive research. While it is always best to begin with definitions, a concept as complex as metacognition demands that our initial definition be provisional. This definition will become more detailed and complete as our understanding grows. Many teachers would describe metacognition, quite acceptably, as about But I would propose a more precise definition: metacognition is the monitoring and control of thought. In this article, I seek to clarify the concept of metacognition and to present ideas about how metacognitive ability can be taught. Metacognition serves many diverse functions, as does language. Consider what the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had to say about language: Think of the tools in a tool-box: There is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screw-driver, a rule, a glue-pot, glue, nails, and screws. The functions of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects. (1) The toolbox is an equally apt metaphor for metacognition. To give a sense of the breadth of metacognitive functioning, I have identified three major categories of metacognition: metamemory and metacomprehension, problem solving, and critical thinking. While this simple taxonomy does not exhaust the many types of metacognition, it does communicate the broad role of the process in important cognitive endeavors. Metamemory and metacomprehension. I have grouped these two concepts together because both refer to an understanding of one's own knowledge state. To grasp metamemory, think about being asked if you are able to name the planets of our solar system in order of their distance from the sun. Now, you either can or cannot do so. But your answer to the question might be yes or no in either case. That is, you can be accurate or inaccurate in your appraisal of your own knowledge. Is this accuracy important? Yes, it is. Research has shown that this self-insight has predictive power for subsequent learning. (2) Metacomprehension is a similar concept with similar importance to learning. Comprehension during reading or listening can be either good or poor. But independent of learners' true comprehension is whether they realize that their comprehension is good or poor. This appraisal can sometimes be very inaccurate. You can easily imagine a student reading a textbook page and not understanding it--and moreover not realizing that he does not understand it. Believing that one understands when one does not is a serious and common error. But even more serious is when students don't even consider whether they comprehend but simply take notes or read mechanically. Problem solving. This almost exclusively human pursuit is a significant category of cognitive activity. Problem solving is exercised daily, often continuously, especially in a complex society where following established rules and procedures is not enough to succeed. Problem solving can be defined simply as the pursuit of a goal when the path to that goal is uncertain. In other words, it's what you do when you don't know what you're doing. Scientific research is a form of problem solving; so is teaching. Neither of these enterprises is algorithmic. Both involve continuously generating possibilities, weighing those options, exploring subsets of options, and evaluating the results. Herbert Simon used the metaphor of finding your way through a maze to describe this process. Problem solving certainly involves cognition. But more is required: constantly stepping back mentally to appraise and rework plans by asking such questions as, What am I trying to accomplish? What are the most promising pathways? Is my strategy working? Critical thinking. Like problem solving, critical thinking encompasses a lot of what human beings do--or at least potentially can do. …

Scaffolding Novice Instructional Designers' Problem-Solving Processes Using Question Prompts in a Web-Based Learning Environment

The present study investigated the effects of question prompts in scaffolding novice instructional designers solving ill-structured, instructional design problems in a Web-based learning environment. The effects of question prompts were studied under different prompting conditions (Question-Elaboration vs. Question-Guidance), taking into consideration various levels of learners' prior knowledge and experience. The study employed a comparative, multiple-case study design using the technique of think-aloud protocols, which were followed by interviews. Eight graduate students from the program of Instructional Design and Technology participated in the study. While the qualitative findings supported the previous research on the advantages of question prompts in scaffolding ill-structured problem solving, they also shed light on the specific cognitive and metacognitive functions, as well as limitations, of question prompts in different conditions. The study has implications for designing instructional scaffolds for supporting ill-structured problem solving of various domains in a Web-based learning environment.

Dynamic Master Mind

Master Mind is a commercial game, popular in the 1970s, that has been extensively used in psychological and educational research. Here, a dynamic assessment format is developed in order to test metacognitive skills in individuals with mental retardation. The main objective is to obtain valid scores that adequately reflect individual differences among low-functioning individuals. Sixteen persons with mental retardation and 13 of average intelligence were compared on static and dynamic Master Mind scores. Scores for subjects of the mental retardation sample were also obtained on the ICAP adaptive functioning score (Bruininks et al., 1986), and on a metacognitive functioning scale, the Cognitively Enriched Behaviour Matrix(Mora and Mora-Merchán, 1995). The latter was administered while participating in a thinking skills programme, Comprehending and Transforming (Mora, 1997) following assessment with Master Mind. Differences between persons with average intelligence and mental retardation were statistically significant on all processes and both on dynamic and static scores. More importantly, dynamic scores on Master Mind were related to adaptive behaviour ( d= 0.482, p&lt; 0.001), and predicted metacognitive functioning in the learning environment of the thinking skills programme ( d= 0.727, p&lt; 0.001). Neither IQ nor static scores related significantly to these criteria.

Childhood Head Injury and Metacognitive Processes in Language and Memory

We studied the metacognitive functioning of children with severe and mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and typically developing children. To test metacognition for memory, children were tested on a modified Judgment of Learning task. We found that children with severe TBI were impaired in their ability to predict recall of specific items prior to study-recall trials, but were unimpaired in predicting recall on a delayed test when the judgment was made after study-recall trials. Metacognitive knowledge impairment for memorial abilities was also demonstrated in children with severe TBI by poor estimation of memory span and exaggerated overconfidence in performance. To test metacognition within the language domain, we gave children a sentence anomaly detection and repair task in which spoken sentences were monitored for semantic anomalies. Children with severe TBI were impaired on the detection of semantic anomalies, especially under conditions of high memory load. However, metalinguistic knowledge in the form of adequate repairs of anomalous sentences, was preserved. Results are discussed in terms of effects of age at test and injury severity.

How to evaluate metacognitive functioning in psychotherapy? The metacognition assessment scale and its applications

AbstractIn this article the authors present a method and a scale for the evaluation of the metacognitive profiles of psychotherapy patients. There will be a description of the metacognitive function and of the alterations that occur to it during treatment. Various hypotheses will then be considered: (1) that the metacognitive function has a modular structure; (2) that for each type of psychopathological condition there is a different metacognitive deficit profile; (3) that to be successful psychotherapy needs to involve an improvement in any deficient metacognitive sub‐function. There will then be a presentation of the Metacognition Assessment Scale (MAS) for the assessment of metacognitive deficits during psychotherapy. We shall then describe the first results we have on the application of the scale. Finally there will be an analysis of two patients suffering from Personality Disorders and a demonstration of what metacognitive deficit profile each one has and how it is modified over the course of psychotherapy treatment. The article ends with a discussion of the hypotheses made at the start in the light of the results that have emerged. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Workplace learning and the metacognitive functions of routines

In the face of research that shows that workplace knowledge and learning are highly contextual, calls for the teaching of generalizable skills for the workplace have been widespread. While the authors reject the usefulness of teaching generalizable skills, they believe that there are commonalities in workplace knowledge that can be taught. These commonalities are related to metacognition rather than simple cognition, and the approach in this paper is to explore the potential of metacognitive instruction for workplace learning. Specifically, the concept of routines is used to develop an instructional theory derived from the inherent metacognitive functions of routines themselves. The paper draws upon contemporary cognitive theory and on recent research on workplace learning, and it builds on studies the authors have conducted on learning in the workplace and on the observation of routines at work.

Problem-solving by traumatically brain injured and neurologically intact subjects on an adaptation of the twenty questions test

Primary objective : RAPS (Rapid Assessment of Problem-Solving) is a clinical measure for assessing verbal problem-solving in hard-to-test patients or those that may not be able to tolerate a longer, more detailed assessment. The design of the test is based on Mosher and Hornsby's Twenty Question test, but RAPS contains several modifications to facilitate its use with brain-injured individuals. This study used RAPS to compare the verbal problem-solving ability of subjects that were neurologically intact and subjects that had chronic traumatic brain injuries. Methods and Procedures : Twenty-one adults that were neurologically intact (NI) and 21 adults that had incurred a traumatic brain injury (TBI) matched for age, gender and education took part in the study. Before being tested with RAPS, participants signed an IRB-approved consent form and completed a battery of neurocognitive measures. RAPS entailed the solving of three verbal problems. Each problem involved an array of 32 pictures of common objects (e.g. football) arranged in a 4 2 8 grid. The subjects were instructed to ask yes/no questions to determine which picture the examiner was 'thinking of '. Three scores were computed for each problem solved: number of questions asked, percentage of constraint-seeking questions, and question-asking efficiency scores for the first four questions. Outcomes : No learning effects across the problems were found for any of the RAPS measures. Scores were averaged across the three problems to determine group effects. Groups of TBI and NI subjects did not differ significantly in the number of questions asked in solving RAPS problems. Members of the NI group asked significantly more constraint-seeking questions (e.g. Is it an animal?) than those in the TBI group, and the subjects that had incurred brain injuries did more guessing than the NI group. Over 70% of the time, guessing took place after the semantic category containing the target picture was known to the subject. Guesses took the form of pseudo-constraint questions (e.g. Is it the animal with a long neck?) rather than frank guesses (e.g. Is it the giraffe?). These trends were seen for both groups. Question-asking efficiency scores, computed for the first four questions of each problem, reflected the amount of information gained by the subjects' questions. It was anticipated that subjects' questioning strategies would target larger rather than smaller number of pictures and systematically reduce the number of total pictures under consideration. Question-asking efficiency scores were significantly higher for the group of NI subjects. Both groups increased question-asking efficiency scores across the first four questions, and there was no significant group 2 question interaction. Further analysis of the question-asking efficiency scores revealed that questions from the group of NI subjects tended to target multiple categories of pictures and larger single semantic categories of pictures on the 32-item problem-solving board, whereas those from the group of TBI subjects often targeted smaller categories or portions of categories. Conclusions : Two meta-cognitive functions, planning and strategy shifting, appeared to explain most of the differences in the verbal problem-solving performance between the groups. Both groups, however, demonstrated a range of abilities on RAPS. Until a larger normative database for RAPS is available, it behooves clinicians using the test to analyse results on an individual basis, to consider the subject's pre-morbid problem-solving ability and to weigh those factors associated with brain injury that could affect RAPS performance.

Attachment theory, metacognitive functions and the therapeutic relationship in eating disorders.

J. Bowlby's attachment theory is used to explore a fundamental motivational force in human behaviour, namely the search for physical and emotional protective intimacy according to an integrated viewpoint remote from Freud's drive-based approach. This theory has received contributions from ethology, the neurosciences, psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology and evolutionary epistemology. Attachment patterns or styles express both the mental and behavioural strategies adopted by individuals to cope with their attachment needs, and their relational history in this area. Experiences of adequate quality promote metacognitive functions, namely a set of mental processes whose role is to protect the individual from psychopathological suffering and construct and articulate a sense of self. Attachment theory and metacognition are the underlying assumptions of reflections on the dynamics marking the development of sometimes very difficult relationships between therapists and eating disorder (ED) patients, who are being increasingly classed as "severe patients" on account of their interpersonal characteristics.

Metacognición y trastorno paraonoide de personalidad

En este trabajo se presenta una reseña de las publicaciones en el ámbito del marco diagnóstico, de la identificación del perfil cognitivo y del tratamiento del trastorno paranoide de personalidad. Se plantea un nuevo modelo psicopatológico del trastorno y del mantenimiento de la patología, identificando los ciclos interpersonales característicos, los esquemas de relación, los estados mentales problemáticos y el perfil metacognitivo. El trastorno paranoide de personalidad se caracteriza por un déficit de descentramiento y diferenciación, y por estados mentales problemáticos con emociones y temas de pensamiento específicos. Los déficits metacognitivos empeoran los estados mentales que influyen circularmente sobre las funciones metacognitivas de los pacientes. Una de las posibilidades para superar esta situación se halla en la propia relación terapéutica. Dicho modelo permite comprender y prever las manifestaciones sintomatológicas de los pacientes, así como desarrollar estrategias de intervención específicas.

Using words about thinking: content analyses of chemistry teachers' classroom talk

Framed by the Vygotskian claim that human action is mediated by tools and signs, in particular the use of language, this study examined the words used by five teachers in six upper-secondary chemistry classrooms across sixty-nine lessons. Content analyses of verbatim transcripts produced frequency counts of words used to direct the attention of students to the processes of thinking and expressing thoughts about chemistry, that is words with a metacognitive and metalinguistic function. While there was some individual variation among teachers, this word use was generally limited in extent and simple or colloquial in expression, and the language of the enacted curriculum did not match the terminology of the official curriculum document. A series of questions about the importance of language about thinking and expressing ideas in Chemistry is raised for future consideration.

Sociocognitive roles in science group discourse

The purpose of this study was to examine students' roles during a long-term collaborative task that required them to master complex sets of cognitive, regulatory and social skills needed for building knowledge largely from their own and their peers' ideas and observations. Samples of discourse were collected from 24 8th grade students in eight groups within four classrooms throughout a 12-week unit on constructing and testing mental models of the nature of matter. Eight prominent sociocognitive roles that served socio-emotional, conceptual and metacognitive functions are described. The roles are related to individual students' perspectives on learning, and to the levels of reasoning each group achieved. The results can be used to raise students' and teachers' awareness of the personal resources, interactive processes and norms that can support or derail knowledge construction in collaborative groups.

Developmental Theory for a Cognitive Enhancement Therapy of Schizophrenia

Recent findings on psychosocial and neurodevelopmental anomalies in schizophrenia patients indicate that deficits related to social cognition-the ability to act wisely in social interactions-may be important constraints on complete social and vocational recovery. Social cognition is acquired over many decades and appears to be partially independent of formal IQ and neuropsychological problems. It invites a more developmental approach to the rehabilitation of schizophrenia, one that we call Cognitive Enhancement Therapy (CET). CET draws on an emerging literature that implicates both pre- and postonset neurodevelopmental difficulties, as well as a complementary literature on diffuse neuropsychological impairments that supports the notion of a neurodevelopmental insult. We analyzed evidence for an associated developmental basis to social cognitive impairment in the context of a model that addressed both the acquisition of interpersonal wisdom and the adaptive process that might follow developmental failures. A contemporary model of human cognition is then used to identify the metacognitive functions that characterize the developmental acquisition of normal cognition and, by inference, the associated difficulties of many patients with schizophrenia. A rehabilitation strategy for schizophrenia, designed to facilitate the metacognitive transition from prepubertal to young adult social cognition, would thus emphasize developmental learning experiences during the remediation of social cognitive deficits. A "gistful" appraisal of interpersonal behavior and novel social contexts best reflects the theoretical intent of this new intervention.