Social Metacognition Research Articles

Dynamics of Reflective Assessment and Knowledge Building for Academically Low-Achieving Students

This study investigates designs for developing knowledge building (KB) and higher order competencies among academically low-achieving students. Thirty-seven low-achieving students from a ninth-grade visual arts course in Hong Kong participated. The design involved principle-based KB pedagogy, with students writing on Knowledge Forum® (KF), enriched by analytics-supported reflective assessment. Analysis of the discourse on KF showed that the low achievers were able to engage in productive discourse, with evidence of metacognitive, collaborative, and epistemic inquiry. Analysis illustrates how the design supported student engagement, including (1) reflective inquiry and social metacognition; (2) reflective meta- and epistemic talk; (3) evidence-based reflection for collective growth; and (4) reflection embedded in community ethos. Implications of reflective assessment for supporting low achievers for inquiry learning and KB are discussed.

Varieties of abstract concepts and their multiple dimensions

abstractThe issue of how abstract concepts are represented is widely debated. However, evidence is controversial, also because different criteria were used to select abstract concepts – for example, imageability and abstractness were equated. In addition, for many years abstract concepts have been considered as a unitary whole. Our work aims to address these two limitations. We asked participants to evaluate 425 abstract concepts on 15 dimensions: abstractness, concreteness, imageability, context availability, Body-Object-Interaction, Modality of Acquisition, Age of Acquisition, Perceptual modality strength, Metacognition, Social metacognition, Interoception, Emotionality, Social valence, Hand and Mouth activation. Results showed that conceiving concepts only in terms of concreteness/abstractness is too simplified. More abstract concepts are typically acquired later and through the linguistic modality and are characterized by high scores in social metacognition (feeling that others can help us in understanding word meaning), while concrete concepts obtain high scores in Body-Object-Interaction, imageability, and context availability. A cluster analysis indicated four kinds of abstract concepts: philosophical-spiritual (e.g., value), self-sociality (e.g., politeness), emotive/inner states (e.g., anger), and physical, spatio-temporal, and quantitative concepts (e.g., reflex). Overall, results support multiple representation views indicating that sensorimotor, inner, linguistic, and social experience have different weights in characterizing different kinds of abstract concepts.

“We Listened to Each Other”: Socioemotional Growth in Literature Circles

AbstractLiterature circles undoubtedly foster literacy, but successful participation in literature circles requires students’ social and emotional competence. The author presents findings from a study of a fifth‐grade student who demonstrated socioemotional growth while participating in literature circles. Specifically, growth in intrapersonal and interpersonal skills such as self‐management, social awareness, social metacognition, and empathy were evident. These findings suggest that literature circles foster not only literacy but also socioemotional learning.

Sociality to Reach Objects and to Catch Meaning.

Sociality influences both concrete and abstract concepts acquisition and representation, but in different ways. Here we propose that sociality is crucial during the acquisition of abstract concepts but less for concrete concepts, that have a bounded perceptual referent and can be learned more autonomously. For the acquisition of abstract concepts, instead, the human relation would be pivotal in order to master complex meanings. Once acquired, concrete words can act as tools, able to modify our sensorimotor representation of the surrounding environment. Indeed, pronouncing a word the referent of which is distant from us we implicitly assume that, thanks to the contribution of others, the object becomes reachable; this would expand our perception of the near bodily space. concepts would modify our sensorimotor representation of the space only in the earlier phases of their acquisition, specifically when the child represents an interlocutor as a real, physical “ready to help actor” who can help her in forming categories and in explaining the meaning of words that do not possess a concrete referent. Once abstract concepts are acquired, they can work as social tools: the social metacognition mechanism (awareness of our concepts and of our need of the help of others) can evoke the presence of a “ready to help actor” in an implicit way, as a predisposition to ask information to fill the knowledge gaps.

Supplemental Material for Social Metacognition in Moral Judgment: Decisional Conflict Promotes Perspective Taking

Supplemental Material for Social Metacognition in Moral Judgment: Decisional Conflict Promotes Perspective Taking

Functions of Social Metacognition Related to Promotion of Activities Problem-Solving Learning in Science

Functions of Social Metacognition Related to Promotion of Activities Problem-Solving Learning in Science

Collaborative Learning in an Information Literacy Course: The Impact of Online Versus Face-to-face Instruction on Social Metacognitive Awareness

Metacognition and social metacognition play important roles in information literacy, online learning, and collaborative learning. This study examines how students rated themselves in both metacognitive and social metacognitive awareness after a collaborative project in an information literacy course offered face-to-face and online. Students in the face-to-face version of the course rated themselves as having higher social metacognitive awareness, though metacognitive awareness scores were similar. Because of this finding, this article makes recommendations for improving collaboration online for information literacy instruction.

Predicting others’ memory performance: The accuracy and bases of social metacognition

Abstract Successful teaching, effective advertising, and happy interpersonal relationships depend upon accurately anticipating what others will remember. Across three experiments, we tested how precisely subjects judged the mnemonic effectiveness of cues for supporting other subjects’ episodic memories. Some subjects generated cue-target word pairs and made judgments of learning (JOLs) for these word pairs while other subjects studied the pairs and made JOLs. Across all three experiments, subjects’ JOLs for others were more accurate than chance, but less accurate than subjects’ JOLs for themselves. Further, JOLs for others were similarly accurate across cues that subjects generated for others and cues that subjects read but did not themselves generate. Idiosyncratic cue generation processes impacted subjects’ JOLs for others; however, this bias was not the primary reason for the inaccuracy of JOLs for others. Rather, our results suggest that the accuracy of judgments about others’ memories suffers because people do not have access to the personal idiosyncrasies of others’ encoding and processing.

НЕПОНИМАНИЕ В МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ: ПРИЧИНЫ И ПОИСКИ РЕШЕНИЙ

Intercultural misunderstandings involve a number of complex causes which can easily escalate into conflicts. Since conflicts are also complex, it is not easy to find solutions because there is no one solution for all problems. Systems Theory, transdisciplinarity, and the social ecological model take a holistic approach in investigating complex phenomena. They permit the creation of a theoretical framework based on previous empirical research and theories across scientific disciplines to identify the relevant elements of complex phenomena and to understand the interrelationship of these elements. Intercultural misunderstandings and conflicts are very complex phenomena because they include culture, perception, identity, ethnocentrism, relationships, trust building and conflict management as well as intercultural commu-nication competence which entails cognition, metacognition, and social metacognition. Since most em-pirical studies focus on isolated, individual elements in specific contexts, this article describes the theoretical framework of how the various findings and theories developed in different scientific disciplines can be used to form a cohesive framework to help circumvent intercultural misunderstandings and conflicts. In so doing, it follows the general principles of Systems Theory, transdisciplinarity, and the social ecological model.

The Effect of Individual and Social Metacognitive Support on Students' Metacognitive Performances in an Online Discussion

Our research examined the effect of the Meta-CIC model on students' metacognitive performances in an online discussion. This model embeds individual and social metacognitive support within an inquiry computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The research population consisted of 150 high-achieving 7th- and 8th-grade students who were divided into four research groups, according to the instructional method to which they were exposed. An online discussion forum accompanied the students' inquiry process. The results indicate that the individual metacognitive support significantly affected students' online metacognitive performances, while the social metacognitive support increased the students' involvement in their peers' learning processes, and enabled them to collaborate in the CSCL. We therefore recommend embedding the Meta-CIC model in a CSCL environment as a means to develop students' online metacognitive performances.

“How I think you are investing”: Gendered, social metacognitive influences on consumers’ investing perspectives

Marketplace social metacognition concerns how consumers think about other consumers in the marketplace and how those others make decisions. We apply this perspective to the consideration of gender stereotypes in relation to investing decision scenarios involving potential gains and losses, as suggested by prospect and house money investing theories. In an experimental study of 84 business school students we find that target-investor order of gender presentation (i.e., the gender of an imagined investor with either a male or female presented first) was more predictive than one's own gender in terms of both amounts invested and investing processes engaged in by male as opposed to female target-investors across gain and loss scenarios. Our findings suggest possible revisions in relating gender stereotype theory to both social metacognition and behaviorally diagnostic investing information.

Some Thoughts on Social Metacognition

Some Thoughts on Social Metacognition

Co-regulation of learning in computer-supported collaborative learning environments: a discussion

This discussion paper for this special issue examines co-regulation of learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments extending research on self-regulated learning in computerbased environments. The discussion employs a socio-cognitive perspective focusing on social and collective views of learning to examine how students co-regulate and collaborate in computer-supported inquiry. Following the review of the articles, theoretical, methodological and instructional implications are discussed: Future research directions include examining the theoretical nature of collective regulation and social metacognition in building models of co-regulated learning; expanding methodological approaches using trace data and multiple measures for convergence and construct validity; and conducting instructional experiments to test and to foster the development of co-regulated learning in computer-supported collaborative inquiry.

Metacognition in forensic patients with schizophrenia and a past history of interpersonal violence: an exploratory study

Metacognition has been shown to be impaired in people diagnosed with schizophrenia, and related to poorer social functioning. To date, no research has looked at the relationship between a particularly rare – but problematic – social functioning outcome (violence) and metacognition. The present study explored patterns of metacognition in people diagnosed with schizophrenia and a history of interpersonal violence, and comparing them to a group with schizophrenia and no history of violence. Participants took part in an interview which explored stress and coping, which was subsequently coded for metacognitive ability. There were no differences between the two groups. Metacognition was significantly correlated with negative symptoms. The limitations of the study and implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Social metacognition and the creation of correct, new ideas: A statistical discourse analysis of online mathematics discussions

During asynchronous, online mathematics discussions, new ideas and justifications (knowledge content) and evaluations and invitations to participate (social metacognition) can influence the likelihood of a correct, new idea (CNI) in the current message. Using statistical discourse analysis, we modeled 894 messages by 183 participants on 60 high school mathematics topics on a mathematics problem solving website not connected to any class or school. Results showed that CNIs, justifications, and social metacognition (correct evaluations and questions) in recent messages increased the likelihood of a CNI in the current message. Meanwhile, more experienced participants (who had posted more messages on the website) had more CNIs, and participants who initiated topics had fewer CNIs. Applied to practice, these results suggest that teachers can facilitate students’ creation of CNIs by encouraging them to justify their ideas, evaluate one another’s ideas carefully, and ask questions during online mathematics discussions.

Social Metacognition (Frontiers of Social Psychology Series)

Social Metacognition (Frontiers of Social Psychology Series)

'How I Think You Are Investing': Gendered, Social Metacognitive Influences on Consumers’ Investing Perspectives

Marketplace social metacognition concerns how consumers think about other consumers in the marketplace and how those others make decisions. We apply this perspective to the consideration of gender stereotypes in relation to investing decision scenarios involving potential gains and losses, as suggested by prospect and house money investing theories. In an experimental study of 84 business school students we find that target-investor order of gender presentation (i.e., the gender of an imagined investor with either a male or female presented first) was more predictive than one’s own gender in terms of both amounts invested and investing processes engaged in by male as opposed to female target-investors across gain and loss scenarios. Our findings suggest possible revisions in relating gender stereotype theory to both social metacognition and behaviorally diagnostic investing information.

Introspection as Projection and Projection as Introspection

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply introspection and related thought to the study and theoretical development of projective techniques and introspective-projective exercises. Design/methodology/approach – The method involves the application of introspective-projective thought exercises.Findings – The thought exercises reveal a symbiotic introspective-projection connection. This connection provides a unifying framework for both in terms of introspective-awareness research on metacognition, social metacognition and reflexivity, as well as in terms of related links to other consumer research domains. Originality/value – The paper is to the first to apply introspective-projective thought exercises. A second contribution is to develop an introspective-projective framework which can help reshape the application and design of projective techniques. A final contribution is to link projection to other relevant but hitherto ignored marketing research such as that dealing with less conscious-automatic versus more conscious-deliberative-enabled responses to stimuli.

Identifying the Best Practices for Critical Social Thinking and Metacognitive Thinking Training

Identifying the Best Practices for Critical Social Thinking and Metacognitive Thinking Training

Identifying the Best Practices for Critical Social Thinking and Metacognitive Thinking Training

Critical thinking and social reasoning are fundamental skills in complex, social situations, and several domains (e.g., healthcare and military) have realized that personnel are lacking the cognitive skills necessary to optimally perform within their complicated, dynamic environment. Thus, there is a need to train critical social thinking skills in order to improve cognitive and social reasoning, enhance performance, and ultimately result in better outcomes. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to provide researchers and practitioners with a review of the literature pertinent to developing critical social thinking skills. This review is presented in the form of best practices for designing and implementing critical thinking training interventions.