Abstract
Accurate self-evaluation leads to better regulation of learning and better performance in elementary school children and acts as a predictor of future academic success. The present study investigates the conditions under which preschoolers’ self-evaluation accuracy can be enhanced. In the empirical research, 111 children were assigned to one of four conditions: control group, group receiving performance feedback, group acquiring repeated experience of testing, and group obtaining both performance feedback and repeated experience. All the children performed the same analogical reasoning tasks and provided self-evaluation judgments. The overall effects of the performance feedback and repeated experience were significant; however, low performers benefited only from performance feedback, while high performers benefited from performance feedback as well as repeated experience.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Harthy, I. S., Was, C. A., & Hassan, A. S. (2015). Poor performers are poor predictors of performance and they know it: can they improve their prediction accuracy? Journal of Global Research in Education and Social Science, 42(2), 93–100.
Baars, M., Vink, S., van Gog, T., de Bruin, A., & Paas, F. (2014). Effects of training self-assessment and using assessment standards on retrospective and prospective monitoring of problem solving. Learning and Instruction, 33, 92–107.
Bahník, Š., Englich, B., & Strack, F. (2017). Anchoring effect. In R. F. Pohl (Ed.), Cognitive illusions: Intriguing phenomena in thinking, judgment, and memory (pp. 223–241). Hove: Psychology Press.
Bergman, O., Ellingsen, T., Johannesson, M., & Svensson, C. (2010). Anchoring and cognitive ability. Economics Letters, 107(1), 66–68.
Butler, D. L., & Winne, P. H. (1995). Feedback and self-regulated learning: a theoretical synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 65(3), 245–281.
Callender, A. A., Franco-Watkins, A. M., & Roberts, A. S. (2016). Improving metacognition in the classroom through instruction, training, and feedback. Metacognition and Learning, 11(2), 215–235.
De Bruin, A. B. H., Kok, E. M., Lobbestael, J., & de Grip, A. (2017). The impact of an online tool for monitoring and regulating learning at university: overconfidence, learning strategy, and personality. Metacognition and Learning, 12(1), 21–43.
Desoete, A., Roeyers, H., & Buysse, A. (2001). Metacognition and mathematical problem solving in grade 3. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34(5), 435–449.
Destan, N., & Roebers, C. M. (2015). What are the metacognitive costs of young children’s overconfidence? Metacognition and Learning, 10(3), 347–374.
Destan, N., Hembacher, E., Ghetti, S., & Roebers, C. M. (2014). Early metacognitive abilities: the interplay of monitoring and control processes in 5-to 7-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 126, 213–228.
Destan, N., Spiess, M. A., de Bruin, A., van Loon, M., & Roebers, C. M. (2017). 6-and 8-year-olds’ performance evaluations: do they differ between self and unknown others? Metacognition and Learning, 12(3), 315–336.
DiFrancesca, D., & Nietfeld, J. L. (2017). Using metacognitive scaffolding to develop problem solving skills in k-12 computer-based learning environments. In J. A. González-Pienda (Ed.), Factors affecting academic performance (pp. 81–100). New York: Nova Science Publisher.
DiFrancesca, D., Nietfeld, J. L., & Cao, L. (2016). A comparison of high and low achieving students on self-regulated learning variables. Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 228–236.
Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2012). Overconfidence produces underachievement: inaccurate self-evaluations undermine students’ learning and retention. Learning and Instruction, 22, 271–280.
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
Ehrlinger, J., Johnson, K., Banner, M., Dunning, D., & Kruger, J. (2008). Why the unskilled are unaware: further explorations of (absent) self-insight among the incompetent. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105(1), 98–121.
Fernandez-Abella, R., Peralbo-Uzquiano, M., Duran-Bouza, M., Brenlla-Blanco, J. C., & Garcia-Fernandez, M. (2019). Virtual intervention program to improve the working memory and basic mathematical skills in early childhood education. Revista de Psicodidactica, 24(1), 17–23.
Folmer, A. S., Cole, D. A., Sigal, A. B., Benbow, L. D., Satterwhite, L. F., Swygert, K. E., & Ciesla, J. A. (2008). Age-related changes in children’s understanding of effort and ability: implications for attribution theory and motivation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 99(2), 114–134.
Foster, N. L., Was, C. A., Dunlosky, J., & Isaacson, R. M. (2017). Even after thirteen class exams, students are still overconfident: the role of memory for past exam performance in student predictions. Metacognition and Learning, 12(1), 1–19.
Fronapfel, B., Dunlap, G., Flagtvedt, K., Strain, P., & Lee, J. (2018). Prevent-teach-reinforce for young children: a program description and demonstration of implementation in an early childhood setting. Education and Treatment of Children, 41(2), 233–248.
García, T., Rodríguez, C., González-Castro, P., González-Pienda, J. A., & Torrance, M. (2016). Elementary students’ metacognitive processes and post-performance calibration on mathematical problem-solving tasks. Metacognition and Learning, 11, 139–170.
Geurten, M., & Meulemans, T. (2017). The effect of feedback on children’s metacognitive judgments: a heuristic account. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 29(2), 184–201.
Kontos, S. (1983). Adult-child interaction and the origins of metacognition. Journal of Educational Research, 77(1), 43–54.
Koriat, A. (1997). Monitoring one’s own knowledge during study: a cue-utilization approach to judgments of learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 349–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.126.4.349.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–1134.
Lipko, A. R., Dunlosky, J., & Merriman, W. E. (2009). Persistent overconfidence despite practice: the role of task experience in preschoolers’ recall predictions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 103(2), 152–166.
Lipko, A. R., Dunlosky, J., Lipowski, S. L., & Merriman, W. E. (2012). Young children are not underconfident with practice: the benefit of ignoring a fallible memory heuristic. Journal of Cognition and Development, 13(2), 174–188.
Lipko-Speed, A., Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2014). Does testing with feedback help grade-school children learn key concepts in science? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3(3), 171–176.
Martella, R. C., & Marchand-Martella, N. E. (2015). Improving classroom behavior through effective instruction: an illustrative program example using SRA FLEX literacy. Education and Treatment of Children, 38(2), 241–271.
Metcalfe, J., & Finn, B. (2008). Evidence that judgments of learning are causally related to study choice. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 15(1), 174–179.
Miller, T. M., & Geraci, L. (2011a). Training metacognition in the classroom: the influence of incentives and feedback on exam predictions. Metacognition and Learning, 6(3), 303–314.
Miller, T. M., & Geraci, L. (2011b). Unskilled but aware: reinterpreting overconfidence in low-performing students. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(2), 502–506.
Nietfeld, J., & Shores, L. R. (2011). Self-regulation within game-based learning environments. In L. Annetta & S. C. Bronack (Eds.), Serious educational game assessment (pp. 19–42). Leiden: SensePublishers.
O’Leary, A., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2017). Carving metacognition at its joints: protracted development of component processes. Child Development, 88(3), 1015–1032.
Ortner, T., Weißkopf, E., & Gerstenberg, F. (2013). Skilled but unaware of it: CAT undermines a test taker’s metacognitive competence. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 28(1), 37–51.
Petrová, Z., & Zápotočná, O. (2018). Early literacy education in preschool curriculum reforms: the case of post-communist Slovakia. Global Education Review, 5(2), 145–159.
Pieger, E., Mengelkamp, C., & Bannert, M. (2017). Fostering analytic metacognitive processes and reducing overconfidence by disfluency: the role of contrast effects. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31(3), 291–301.
Raaijmakers, S. F., Baars, M., Paas, F., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & van Gog, T. (2018). Training self-assessment and task-selection skills to foster self-regulated learning: do trained skills transfer across domains? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 32(2), 270–277.
Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2007). Improving students’ self-evaluation of learning for key concepts in textbook materials. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19(4/5), 559–579.
Roebers, C. M., & Spiess, M. (2017). The development of metacognitive monitoring and control in second graders: a short-term longitudinal study. Journal of Cognition and Development, 18(1), 110–128.
Rozencwajg, P. (2003). Metacognitive factors in scientific problem-solving strategies. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 18(3), 281–294.
Ruble, D. N., Eisenberg, R., & Higgins, E. T. (1994). Developmental changes in achievement evaluation: motivational implications of self-other differences. Child Development, 65(4), 1095–1110.
Ryvkin, D., Krajč, M., & Ortmann, A. (2012). Are the unskilled doomed to remain unaware? Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(5), 1012–1031.
Schneider, W. (1998). Performance prediction in young children: effects of skill, metacognition and wishful thinking. Developmental Science, 1(2), 291–297.
Schneider, W., & Lockl, K. (2008). Procedural metacognition in children: evidence for developmental trends. In J. Dunlosky & R. A. Bjork (Eds.), Handbook of metamemory and memory (pp. 391–409). New York: Psychology press.
Schneider, W., Visé, M., Lockl, K., & Nelson, T. O. (2000). Developmental trends in children’s memory monitoring: evidence from a judgment-of-learning task. Cognitive Development, 15, 115–134.
Schraw, G. (2009). Measuring metacognitive judgments. In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), Handbook of metacognition in education (pp. 415–429). New York: Routledge.
Shin, H., Bjorklund, D. F., & Beck, E. F. (2007). The adaptive nature of children’s overestimation in a strategic memory task. Cognitive Development, 22(2), 197–212.
Stipek, D. J., & Tannatt, L. M. (1984). Children’s judgments of their own and their peers’ academic competence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(1), 75–84.
Stipek, D. J., Roberts, T. A., & Sanborn, M. E. (1984). Preschool-age children’s performance expectations for themselves and another child as a function of the incentive value of success and the salience of past performance. Child Development, 55(6), 1983–1989.
Thompson, R. B., & Foster, B. J. (2014). Socioeconomic status and parent-child relationships predict metacognitive questions to preschoolers. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 43(4), 315–333.
Urban, K. (2017). Metacognitive monitoring. In O. Zápotočná & Z. Petrová (Eds.), Early literacy of children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds (pp. 79–98). Bratislava: VEDA.
Urban, K., & Urban, M. (2018). Influence of fluid intelligence on accuracy of metacognitive monitoring in preschool children fades with the calibration feedback. Studia Psychologica, 60(2), 123–136.
Urban, K., & Urban, M. (2019). Improving the accuracy of the self-evaluation during on-screen self-regulated learning through calibration feedback. In L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, & I. Candel Torres (Eds.), INTED2019 proceedings (pp. 9002–9007). Valencia: Spain.
Urban, K., & Zápotočná, O. (2017). Metacognitive monitoring in preschool children when solving verbal and nonverbal tasks. Československá Psychologie, 61(6), 521–535.
van Loon, M. H., & Roebers, C. M. (2017). Effects of feedback on self-evaluations and self-regulation in elementary school. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31(5), 508–519.
van Loon, M. H., Destan, N., Spiess, M., De Bruin, A. B. H., & Roebers, C. (2017). Developmental progression in performance evaluations: effects of children’s cue-utilization and self-protection. Learning and Instruction, 51, 47–60.
Vauras, M., Kinnunen, R., & Rauhanummi, T. (1999). The role of metacognition in the context of integrated strategy intervention. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 14(4), 555–569.
Zamary, A., Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2016). How accurately can students evaluate the quality of self-generated examples of declarative concepts? Not well, and feedback does not help. Learning and Instruction, 46, 12–20.
Zápotočná, O. (2013). Metacognitive processes in reading, learning and education. Trnava: TYPI Universitatis Tyrnaviensis.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the student research assistants who helped with the data collection.
Funding
This research project was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, grant VEGA 2/0134/18.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The research was approved by the ethical committee of the Institute for Research in Social Communication SAS.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Kamila Urban. Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 11 Bratislava, Slovakia. Institute of Education and Communication, Czech University of Life Sciences, V Laznich 3, 159 00 Prague, Czech Republic. E-mail: kamila.p.urban@gmail.com
Current themes of research:
Fostering metacognition from preschool age. Self-regulated learning.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Urban, K. (2017). Metacognitive monitoring. In O. Zápotočná, & Z. Petrová (Eds.), Early literacy of children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds (pp. 79–98). Trnava: Typi Universitatis Tyrnaviensis & Bratislava: VEDA.
Urban, K., & Zápotočná, O. (2017). Metacognitive monitoring in preschool children when solving verbal and nonverbal tasks. Československá Psychologie, 61(6), 521–535.
Urban, K., & Urban, M. (2018). Influence of fluid intelligence on accuracy of metacognitive monitoring in preschool children fades with the calibration feedback. Studia Psychologica, 60(2), 123-136.
Urban, K., & Urban, M. (2019). Improving the accuracy of the self-evaluation during on-screen self-regulated learning through calibration feedback. In INTED 2019: 13th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. Edited by L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, I. Candel Torres. - Valencia, Spain: IATED Academy, 9002-9007.
Marek Urban. Department of History and Theory of Art, Faculty of Art and Design, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University, Pasteurova 9, 400 96, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic. E-mail: marek.m.urban@gmail.com
Current themes of research:
Research-driven interventions in education to foster the creativity. Intrinsic motivation.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Urban, M. (2014). Who we are? When a social representation becomes a foucauldian apparatus. In Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference on MMK 2015 (pp. 2720-2727). Hradec Králové: Magnanimitas.
Urban, M. (2017). Identity of the auteur: narratives, social representations and narrative self in Slovak cinematography in 2012–2017. Bratislava: VEDA.
Urban, K., & Urban, M. (2018). Influence of fluid intelligence on accuracy of metacognitive monitoring in preschool children fades with the calibration feedback. Studia Psychologica, 60(2), 123-136.
Urban, K., & Urban, M. (2019). Improving the accuracy of the self-evaluation during on-screen self-regulated learning through calibration feedback. In INTED 2019: 13th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. Edited by L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, I. Candel Torres. - Valencia, Spain: IATED Academy, 9002-9007.
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Urban, K., Urban, M. Effects of performance feedback and repeated experience on self-evaluation accuracy in high- and low-performing preschool children. Eur J Psychol Educ 36, 109–124 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00460-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00460-6