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Metacognition, cognition and learning: Old dubitations and new directions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Graham Davidson
Graham Davidson*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, University of Central Queensland
*
Department of Social Sciences, University of Central Queensland, Rockhampton MC 4702, Australia
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Abstract

Research into metacognition, a relatively new construct in the cognitive sciences, has been prodigious over the last decade. This is despite continuing doubts about its heuristic value. Initial doubts emphasised difficulties associated with definition of the construct, the limited predictive power of metacognitive task performance in relation to actual cognitive task or test performance and, relatedly, difficulties in operationalising the construct in specific thinking and problem solving contexts. Subsequent cross-cultural research has focussed on the degree to which metacognitive thinking is situationalised according to cultural context and thinking task, despite the implication that such thinking, by nature, is “multicontextual.” It then questioned the extent to which different social and cultural groups differ in their construction of the metacognitive level of knowledge and its relevance to their everyday life task performance and thinking.

Type
Articles
Information
South Pacific Journal of Psychology , Volume 7 , 1994 , pp. 18 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © University of Papua New Guinea & University of Central Queensland 1994

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