Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-93).

Since the early days of psychology, practitioners have recognised that metacognition - or the act of thinking about one's own thinking - is intertwined with our experience of the world. In the last decade, scientists have started to understand metacognitive signals, like judgments of confidence, as precise mathematical constructs. Confidence can be conceived of as an internal estimate of the probability of being correct. As such, confidence influences both advice seeking and advice taking while allowing people to optimally combine their views for joint action and group coordination. This work begins by exploring the idea that confidence judgments are important for monitoring not only uncertainty associated with one's performance but also, thanks to their positive covariation with accuracy, the reliability of social advisers, particularly when objective criteria are not available. I present data showing that, when adviser and advisee's judgments are independent, people are able to detect subtle variations in advice information, irrespective of feedback presence. I also show that, when such independence is broken, the use of subjective confidence to track others' reliability leads to systematic deviations. I then proceed to explore the differences existing between static and dynamic social information exchange. Traditionally, social and organisational psychology have investigated one-step unidirectional information systems, but many real-life interactions happen on a continuous time-scale, where social exchanges are recursive and dynamic. I present results indicating that the dynamics of social information exchange (recursive vs. one-step) affect individual opinions over and above the information that is communicated. Overall, my results suggest a bidirectional involvement of confidence in social inference and information exchange, and highlight the limits of the mechanisms underlying it.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-05-14T13:50:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Oseas Bezerra Viana Júnior.pdf: 3328274 bytes, checksum: cbe08881a9b72da4168efef4b3afa456 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva(sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-05-23T18:53:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Oseas Bezerra Viana Júnior.pdf: 3328274 bytes, checksum: cbe08881a9b72da4168efef4b3afa456 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-23T18:53:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Oseas Bezerra Viana Júnior.pdf: 3328274 bytes, checksum: cbe08881a9b72da4168efef4b3afa456 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Esta dissertação teve como objetivo tentar identificar a contribuição das estratégias de aprendizagem de línguas, especialmente as metacognitivas, como um dos recursos, que podem auxiliar os alunos a superar as dificuldades encontradas em seu processo de aprendizagem. Para observar tal contribuição, foi necessário mapear quais eram essas dificuldades, enquanto eles realizavam as atividades que envolviam sua habilidade oral, bem como se houve um aumento em seu nível de consciência quanto ao uso das estratégias de aprendizagem. Para alcançar tais objetivos, este trabalho utiliza a metodologia de cunho etnográfico, na qual, faz-se possível utilizar questionários, entrevistas, diários de campo e observação participante. A pesquisa foi realizada em um contexto de aprendizagem formal com um grupo do Curso de Extensão de língua inglesa da UFBA, formado por vinte e um alunos, dos quais uma parte era bolsista. A pesquisa apontou a interação sócioafetiva como um dos principais fatores que podem contribuir ou dificultar na aprendizagem. / Salvador

With the rise of the writing-to-learn (WTL) movement, studies on reflection and implementing reflective writing became key focal points in research on writing across the curriculum (WAC). Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have noted the benefits of implementing genres of writing that prompt students to look back and assess aspects of their own performance and understanding. Other inquiries examine if reflective writing impacts student performance, as well as analyze students' reflective processes and their perceptions of reflection. This investigation represents a continuation and expansion of these different research efforts on reflection across the curriculum. The goal of this work is to gain more knowledge about students' reflective processes and the language that they use to describe reflective thought and action by focusing on multiple, discipline-specific contexts. Through an exploratory study of four courses within two disciplines--English and History--at a large, public university, this work examines the reflective processes and perceptions of students and how their perceptions and processes align with their instructors' expectations. This study suggests that students and instructors in various disciplines have unique and sometimes divergent ways of using and talking about reflection, which presents implications for research on WAC and knowledge transfer. Aligning with the rich body of research in the field, this investigation uses reflection as both a subject of inquiry and a guiding action.

Many studies have shown a gender difference in spatial navigation ability, including a related gender difference in global metacognitive self-assessment and spatial anxiety. However, it has yet to be determined whether trial-by-trial metacognitive accuracy differs between the genders and how this may be related to gender differences in navigation performance. The goal of this research was to determine, using the Nelson and Nerens (1990) metamemory framework, if there exist gender differences in trial-by-trial metacognitive monitoring on a first-person virtual maze navigation task, and how this may be related to gender differences in navigation performance. Considering that there is a relatively pervasive stereotype that women have poor navigation stills, an additional goal of this research was to determine if the effects of stereotype could, at least partially, explain the gender difference in navigation performance, confidence, and trial-by-trial metacognitive monitoring accuracy. Many studies have shown stereotype threat and lift to influence confidence and performance between the genders on a variety of spatial cognitive tasks, but mostly on mental rotation tasks. We investigated whether this effect applied to gender differences in a spatial navigation task. In order to accomplish this, we assessed trial-by-trial metacognitive accuracy during a first-person virtual maze navigation task under three stereotype facilitation conditions where participants were told that either: 1) men outperform women on this particular task, 2) women outperform men on this particular task, or 3) the genders perform equally. Over three experiments, the results showed that men generally have more accurate metacognitive monitoring than women, especially when assessing a previous performance. Contrary to our expectations, stereotype activation had no effect on trial-by-trial metacognition, though it did have an effect on navigation performance and confidence.

Investigou-se como crianças de 3ª série do ensino público, destacadas por dificuldades na aquisição da leitura, relatam como percebem, organizam e avaliam sua atividade cognitiva em situações de leitura. Participaram 40 crianças distribuídas em dois grupos com baixo (G1) e alto (G2) desempenho, como referência para a comparação de resultados, em uma tarefa padronizada de leitura e escrita, aplicada em 80 crianças. O relato de conhecimento metacognitivo sobre leitura obteve-se pela aplicação individual de um roteiro de entrevista. Este foi analisado a partir da freqüência de respostas apresentadas por grupo, nas diferentes categorias. Para analisar relações entre conhecimento metacognitivo e nível de desempenho aplicouse individualmente uma tarefa de leitura de livro. O tempo de leitura, tipos de erro e condutas de auto-regulação foram registradas em protocolo apropriado. Estes foram analisados em função do tempo de leitura e das taxas de erro e de auto-regulação. Nos resultados, evidencia-se no G2 maior domínio de conhecimentos metacognitivos relativo a dimensões mais complexas da leitura, com maior referência a conhecimentos sobre nível ortográfico, estrutura textual, estratégias e generalização destes para outras disciplinas; enquanto que no G1 destacam-se conhecimentos principalmente relacionados ao nível da palavra. Na tarefa de leitura o G2 apresentou desempenho significativamente superior, sobretudo em relação ao tempo e à taxa de erro. Comparando os resultados dos dois instrumentos, concluímos que há uma relação entre o plano do conhecimento declarável pela criança sobre seu funcionamento cognitivo e seu desempenho efetivo no plano da ação em tarefa de leitura / Childrens self reports concerning their cognitive activity during reading tasks were investigated in this study. Forty third graders, divided in two groups, according to their literacy achievement, low (G1) and high (G2), were selected among 80 students, by a standardized test that assessed their reading and writing abilities. Selfreports concerning metacognitive knowledge were obtained in individual interviews and analysed by frequency of categories in each group. A reading task was also assigned individually, in order to assess relationships between metacognitive knowledge and reading performance. Reading time, mistakes and self-correcting strategies were registered in a pre - devised protocol. Results evidenced better control of metacognitive knowledge among G2 third graders related to more complex dimensions involved in reading, such as spelling, textual structure, strategies and generalizing to other domains, while low achievers knowledge was more focused at word level. High achievers (G2) also performed significantly better in the reading task, specially reading time and mistakes rate. Results support conclusions about existing relationships between manifest metacognitive knowledge and performance in reading tasks

Properly tuned metacognitive knowledge is important for setting up realistic learning goals. One of the more robust findings in metacognitive science, the delayed JOL effect, pertains to the fact that delaying judgments of learning (JOL) leads to more accurate monitoring of one’s learning. Thirty students were tested on their knowledge of metacognitive strategies. They were asked to study paired associates, make JOLs, and were later tested with a cued recall test, as well asked about the efficacy of strategies for making JOLs. There was a significant positive effect in monitoring accuracy, from delaying JOLs, yet the participants showed poor explicit knowledge of it, and neither did their choice of strategy improve with task experience. The results demonstrate the important role of correct assessment during ongoing learning, and that even experienced learners, such as, university undergraduates are seemingly unaware of which strategies lead to optimal monitoring.

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

No description available.

This PhD investigated the theoretical and clinical applications of a meta-cognitive model of psychological disorders in social anxiety. The main objective was to identify potential associations between meta-cognitive knowledge (i.e. meta-cognitive beliefs) and social anxiety. These associations could be direct or indirect via information-processing mechanisms, such as anticipatory processing (AP), focus of attention, and post-mortem processing (PM). The current thesis reports six studies (N = 686).Study 1 explored cross-sectionally the potential contribution of meta-cognitive beliefs about general worry to social anxiety. The results showed that positive and uncontrollability beliefs along with AP were individual positive predictors of social anxiety. Furthermore, these beliefs had an indirect effect on social anxiety through anticipatory processing and the post-mortem. These results prompted further exploration of the nature of meta-cognitive beliefs in social anxiety. Study 2 employed semi-structured interviews to elicit meta-cognitive beliefs that could be specific to social anxiety. High and low socially anxious individuals reported beliefs about anticipatory processing, focusing on an observer perspective (OP) self-image, and the post-mortem. The high socially anxious group reported greater engagement in both AP and focusing on the OP, and spending greater time trying to control AP, OP, and the post-mortem. Moreover, the two groups differed in beliefs about these mechanisms, in coping strategies, and in stop signals. The beliefs elicited informed two new questionnaires that were investigated in Study 3. Each questionnaire revealed three subscales of positive and negative beliefs about AP and about the OP self-image, respectively. The subscales showed good reliability and stability. In addition, the new beliefs revealed further associations with social anxiety. Study 4 investigated whether meta-cognitive beliefs could affect attentional bias in social anxiety. High and low socially anxious individuals completed a dot-probe task with emotional, social and physical words matched with neutral words. The results indicated a potential moderation effect of social anxiety and positive meta-cognitive beliefs on attentional bias. Moreover, meta-cognitive beliefs predicted attentional bias in both social anxiety groups. The above results implicated meta-cognitive beliefs in the maintenance of social anxiety. Study 5 explored whether these beliefs could affect state anxiety in high socially anxious individuals that engaged in either AP or a distraction task prior to giving a speech. The results replicated previous findings that AP was associated with more anxiety compared with distraction. Additionally, uncontrollability beliefs were associated with increased state anxiety before the speech, while positive beliefs interfered with distraction and were associated with the maintenance of anxiety after the speech was over. Finally, Study 6 explored whether a meta-cognitive intervention could be effective in the treatment of social anxiety. In a cross-over design, high socially anxious individuals practiced detached mindfulness and thought challenging prior to giving a speech. The results showed that detached mindfulness was associated with greater reductions in negative beliefs, worry, and the OP. In conclusion, the results of a series of studies support the application of the meta-cognitive model to social anxiety.