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Publication

Metacognition counts too. The role of metacognition in arithmetic development: Evidence from behaviour and brain.

Book - Dissertation

Arithmetic performance and development in children is characterized by large individual differences. Understanding what is associated with and/or drives these individual differences is of the essence, as arithmetic is hugely important in children's educational development and, more generally, in many aspects of modern life. Rightfully so, a large body of research has investigated the correlates of arithmetic performance and development. Important processes such as numerical magnitude processing and executive functions have been put forward. Yet, their unique contribution to arithmetic is not fully understood, as these processes are generally studied in isolation. The aim of the current dissertation was to further our understanding of these correlates of arithmetic by investigating different cognitive, metacognitive and affective processes in concert. The critical contribution of this dissertation was the inclusion of metacognition and thorough investigation of metacognitive monitoring in this context, which has been mostly overlooked in the existing literature. Firstly, we ran a longitudinal panel study in primary school children that examined the unique roles of numerical magnitude processing, executive functions and metacognition in second grade, in third grade and over development between second and third grade. The results revealed that, over and above the role of numerical magnitude processing and executive functions, metacognitive monitoring was associated with performance in both early and middle primary school and predicted later arithmetic performance. Its role in predicting arithmetic development, taking into account prior arithmetic performance, needs further investigation. In a next study, we first investigated the interrelations between metacognitive monitoring and mathematics anxiety, to then examine whether their interplay influenced the concurrent and longitudinal associations that were found between metacognitive monitoring and arithmetic. Our findings indicate that, while mathematics anxiety was related to both metacognitive monitoring and arithmetic, the association between metacognitive monitoring and arithmetic was unique and specific, without mediation or moderation of mathematics anxiety. The fourth study addressed the currently debated extent to which metacognitive monitoring is domain-specific or reflective of a more general performance monitoring process. Investigating this in highly relevant academic domains in primary school children, we found that more domain-general metacognitive monitoring processes emerge over the ages from 7 to 9. Finally, in a fifth study, we uncovered the neurobiological basis of metacognitive monitoring in children. We demonstrated that brain activity during metacognitive monitoring increased in de left inferior frontal gyrus and correlated with arithmetic performance. We provided the first empirical evidence in favour of the hypothesis that prefrontal cortex activity during arithmetic is related to the higher-order process of metacognitive monitoring. Collectively, these studies demonstrated the importance of metacognitive monitoring of accuracy for arithmetic performance and development in primary school children, while confirming the role of numerical magnitude processing and mathematics anxiety, and to a lesser extent executive functions. The current dissertation thus furthered our understanding of the correlates of arithmetic. Its critical contribution was uncovering the role of metacognition on top of other crucial processes, and as such emphasizing that 'metacognition counts too'.
Publication year:2020
Accessibility:Open