John Flavell, who coined the term "metacognition" in the 1970s, defined it as:
A: The speed at which information is processed and stored in memory
B: Knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena — thinking about one's own thinking and learning
C: The ability to learn without conscious awareness
D: The process of transferring skills from one domain to another
Correct: Knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena — thinking about one's own thinking and learning
Flavell distinguished between metacognitive knowledge (what you know about learning and cognition in general, and your own cognitive strengths and weaknesses) and metacognitive regulation (monitoring and controlling your own learning processes, e.g., recognising when you don't understand something and switching strategies). Both are necessary for effective, self-directed learning.
Research consistently shows that students rate re-reading and highlighting as their most-used study strategies. What does evidence say about their effectiveness?
A: Both are highly effective for long-term retention
B: Highlighting is effective; re-reading is not
C: Both produce a feeling of learning but have low utility for actual retention compared to retrieval practice
D: They are equally effective to retrieval practice but take longer
Correct: Both produce a feeling of learning but have low utility for actual retention compared to retrieval practice
Dunlosky et al.'s landmark review (2013) rated re-reading and highlighting as low-utility strategies. They produce fluency illusions — the material feels familiar, which is mistaken for knowing. In contrast, retrieval practice (testing yourself), distributed practice, and elaborative interrogation have high utility. Students persist with ineffective strategies partly because of metacognitive failures in monitoring their own learning.
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes the finding that:
A: Experts underestimate their own abilities relative to novices
B: People with limited knowledge in a domain tend to overestimate their competence
C: People are reliably poor at estimating others' abilities
D: Intelligence and confidence are negatively correlated across populations
Correct: People with limited knowledge in a domain tend to overestimate their competence
Kruger and Dunning (1999) found that people who performed poorly on tests of logical reasoning, grammar, and humour were also poor at estimating how well they had done — they believed their performance was above average. The competence needed to do well is the same competence needed to recognise when you are failing. Conversely, highly skilled individuals sometimes underestimate themselves, because tasks that feel easy to them seem as if they should be easy for everyone.
Calibration in metacognition refers to:
A: Matching your study schedule to the difficulty of the material
B: The accuracy of your confidence judgements relative to your actual performance
C: The ability to switch between different memory strategies
D: Adjusting the pace of reading to match text complexity
Correct: The accuracy of your confidence judgements relative to your actual performance
Good calibration means your confidence closely tracks your actual knowledge — you feel confident about things you know and uncertain about things you don't. Poor calibration (being overconfident or underconfident) leads to ineffective study decisions: an overconfident student stops studying too early; an underconfident one wastes time reviewing already-mastered material. Retrieval practice improves calibration by providing accurate feedback.
The "testing effect" (or retrieval practice effect) refers to:
A: The anxiety that testing produces, which impairs performance
B: The phenomenon that practising retrieval of information improves long-term retention more than re-studying the same material
C: The finding that multiple-choice tests are less effective than essay tests
D: The tendency for test scores to improve with each re-test regardless of studying
Correct: The phenomenon that practising retrieval of information improves long-term retention more than re-studying the same material
Retrieving information from memory — through quizzes, flashcards, or practice tests — strengthens that memory trace more than passively re-reading. The effort of retrieval itself drives learning. Roediger and Butler's research showed that a single retrieval practice session produced better week-later retention than multiple re-study sessions. The testing effect is one of the most replicable and actionable findings in cognitive psychology.
Which classroom intervention has the strongest evidence for improving metacognitive skill in students?
A: Telling students how intelligent they are to boost confidence
B: Teaching students explicitly about effective strategies and having them monitor and regulate their own learning
C: Reducing test frequency to lower anxiety
D: Grouping students by ability to allow personalised instruction
Correct: Teaching students explicitly about effective strategies and having them monitor and regulate their own learning
The Education Endowment Foundation rates metacognition and self-regulation interventions among the highest-impact, lowest-cost approaches in education (+7 months' progress on average). Effective programmes explicitly teach strategies, model how to plan and monitor work, encourage self-evaluation, and transfer control to students. Simply telling students they are smart (as in entity praise) backfires, reducing persistence when students encounter difficulty.
Metacognition
John Flavell, who coined the term "metacognition" in the 1970s, defined it as:
About this quiz
Metacognition — thinking about thinking — is one of the strongest predictors of academic achievement and a key target for learning interventions. It involves both knowledge about how you learn and the ability to monitor and regulate your own cognitive processes.
This quiz covers the foundations of metacognitive theory, why we so often misjudge our own learning, which study strategies actually work, and how metacognitive skill can be developed.