Explicit and implicit confidence judgments and developmental differences in metamemory: an eye-tracking approach

Abstract

In the present study, primary school children's ability to give accurate confidence judgments (CJ) was addressed, with a special focus on uncertainty monitoring. In order to investigate the effects of memory retrieval processes on monitoring judgments, item difficulty in a vocabulary learning task (Japanese symbols) was manipulated. Moreover, as a first exploratory step to uncover fast and retrieval bound (implicit) monitoring processes that take place before explicit CJ are openly reported, fixation time allocation during recognition and monitoring was recorded with an eye-tracking device. Results revealed developmental progression in uncertainty (but not in certainty) monitoring between the age of 7 and 9 years. Differences in CJ across levels of item difficulty point to a substantial impact of retrieval processes on 9-yr-olds' but not on 7-yr-olds' monitoring. Eye-tracking data revealed an overall bias towards medium and high CJ, and confirmed evidence on developmental progression in monitoring skills.

Examining implicit metacognition in 3.5-year-old children: an eye-tracking and pupillometric study

“…However, given the evidence on implicit metacognitive abilities in behavioral tasks (e.g., Balcomb and Gerken, 2008) we hypothesized differences in CJs between the items in the implicit measure, that is, children's fixation patterns. More concretely speaking, following the findings of Roderer and Roebers (2010), we expected participants to allocate more looking time to the parts of the CJ scale expressing high confidence for correctly compared to incorrectly answered items. Finally, we analyzed changes in pupil size by comparing children's pupil size for the animal in the learning trials and the presentation of the same animal in the test trials.…”

“…Eye-tracking has become a frequently used, nonverbal measure of young children's performances (e.g., Paulus et al, 2011; De Bordes et al, 2012; Elsner et al, 2012a,b; Fawcett and Liszkowski, 2012). In particular, it has been shown to be a suitable method to investigate young children's learning performances (e.g., Johnson et al, 2003; McMurray and Aslin, 2004; Roebers et al, 2010; Paulus and Fikkert, 2012) and, in school-aged children, also metamemory skills (Roderer and Roebers, 2010). Roderer and Roebers (2010) examined 7–9-year-old children's explicit confidence judgments (CJs) in a memory task.…”

“…In particular, it has been shown to be a suitable method to investigate young children's learning performances (e.g., Johnson et al, 2003; McMurray and Aslin, 2004; Roebers et al, 2010; Paulus and Fikkert, 2012) and, in school-aged children, also metamemory skills (Roderer and Roebers, 2010). Roderer and Roebers (2010) examined 7–9-year-old children's explicit confidence judgments (CJs) in a memory task. Additionally, they recorded participants' fixation time allocation on the CJ scale.…”

Decision-Making in Adolescents According to Reaction Time, HEG and PASS

“…A study in a sample of adolescents and adults (aged between 11 and 41 years) indicated that confident judgments ability improves across the period of adolescence, is highest in late adolescence and stabilizes in adulthood [14]. It has been also reported that confidence judgments improve during late childhood, age 7-12 years [65]. Several studies have reported that adults are better than adolescents in the control of action [14], in self-evaluation, [6] and top-down control [66].…”

Developmental changes and the effect of self-generated feedback in metacognitive controlled spacing strategies in 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults

“…A 5-point Likert-type smiley scale on A4 laminated paper in landscape format was used as a measure for the JoL and ranged from a frowning smiley to a smiling smiley. This scale has been successfully used in previous research on metacognition in school children as young as 6 or 7 years (Destan et al, 2014;Lockl & Schneider, 2003;Paulus, Tsalas, Proust, & Sodian, 2014;Roderer & Roebers, 2010). …”