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Self-paced study involves choosing items for (re)study and determining how much time will be allocated to those items so as to maximize later recall, making it a viable venue for examining whether there are age-related differences in metacognitive control. Two prominent models have been proposed to account for item selection and study time allocation behaviors during self-paced study. The Discrepancy Reduction Model (DRM; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998; Nelson & Leonesio, 1988) suggests individuals will always select and allocate the most time to items that have not yet been learned, whereas the Region of Proximal Learning model (RPL; Metcalfe, 2002) predicts individuals will select the easiest unknown items and will only later select and allocate time to the more difficult items if time constraints permit, thus making distinctions among unlearned items graded by difficulty. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether younger and older adults item selection and study time allocation behaviors would be more consistent with DRM or RPL model predictions. Across both experiments younger and older adults initially selected easier items for study, providing the first evidence to date that the RPL model would extend to older adults self-paced study of heterogeneously difficult Spanish-English vocabulary pairs. However, both younger and older adults allocated more time to difficult than easier items. The assignment of point values to items in Experiment 2 affected how likely participants were to pursue each of four experimenter-determined task goals that either stressed the number of words recalled, points earned, or both. Whether point values initially favored recall of easy or difficult items interacted with time constraints to influence the basis (objective versus subjective difficulty) and order of participants item selections (Experiment 2). However, younger adults were better able to effectively allocate their study time to achieve self-determined (Experiment 1) and experimenter-determined goals (Experiment 2), indicating age-related differences in metacognitive control despite younger and older adults having similar memory self-efficacy ratings and encoding strategy use behaviors.

Within the educational psychology literature there is an abundance of research in the field of metacognition. The concentration of this research however has been in primary and secondary school contexts with little attention given to tertiary students' understanding or use of metacognition; there has been even less attention to whether age is a factor in tertiary students' perceptions of their metacognitive processes. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of two distinct groups of first year university students, towards their understanding and usage of metacognitive processes and strategies. The two groups defined were traditional school leavers and mature age students. The findings from the exploration of these perceptions were compared to ascertain the similarities and differences in metacognitive processes between the two cohorts. The data collected for this study were obtained through a process of individual face-to-face in- depth interviews. The choice of this methodology was deliberate in order to gather rich data about the students' perceptions and experiences rather than attempt to measure their levels of metacognition against some predetermined standard. Data were collected and analyzed on the two constructs of metacognition which were identified in the literature search. These were metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive control. A range of affective variables such as self efficacy, motivation and expectancy of success, which impact on students' metacognitive abilities and processes, were also considered in the data collection and analysis. The findings indicated that age was a factor in determining some differences and similarities in students' perceptions of their own and others metacognitive processes. In certain cases the traditional school leavers' recency of experience with formal study was deemed an advantage; in others the life experience of the mature age students was perceived an advantage. In some instances the age of the student had no discernable impact on their understanding of, and ability to, utilize metacognitive strategies. These findings assist to broaden the understanding of student perceptions of metacognition in the tertiary context. The findings also make it imperative that tertiary institutions make fewer assumptions about the skills and abilities of their commencing students based on the criterion of age and offer more opportunities to assist students to understand the value of developing and improving their metacognitive processes.

La première partie de ce travail de thèse est une revue de la littérature portant toutd'abord sur les origines du concept de métacognition et sur les différentes définitions etmodélisations du concept de métacognition proposées en sciences de l’éducation etpsychologie développementale. Sont ensuite abordées les expérimentations proposées dans lechamp de la psychologie cognitive et les études menées dans le domaine spécifique de lamétamémoire. L’utilisation en psychologie cognitive du concept de métacognition estégalement évoquée, à travers la littérature portant sur les liens existants entre métacognition etconscience de soi. Enfin, le dernier point abordé dans cette revue de la littérature porte surl’utilisation en pratique clinique du concept de métacognition, notamment concernant lesaltérations métacognitives dans la schizophrénie.La deuxième partie de la thèse est consacrée aux études expérimentales réalisées.L’objectif de ces études était de développer et d’explorer dans une population non clinique lescaractéristiques d’un outil de mesure de la conscience métacognitive sur la mémoire à courtterme, la mémoire de travail, la mémoire épisodique verbale, les fonctions exécutives, et lacognition sociale. Nous avons évalué dans une première étude l’impact de cette procéduremétacognitive sur les performances cognitives. Une deuxième étude avait pour objectifd'explorer la pertinence de l’utilisation de l’évaluation « on-line » de la consciencemétacognitive, pendant la tâche neuropsychologique, comparativement à une procédure «end-line », juste après la passation du test neuropsychologique, ainsi que l’impact des mesuresd’estime de soi, anxiété et symptomatologie dépressive sur les scores de consciencemétacognitive « on-line ».Dans la troisième partie de cette thèse, les résultats sont discutés, et mis enperspectives avec l’objectif, à savoir utiliser cet outil de mesure de la consciencemétacognitive auprès d’une population de sujets souffrant de schizophrénie. / The first part of this thesis is a literature review focused on the origin, the differentdefinitions and models of the concept of metacognition in educational science anddevelopmental psychology. This literature review focused also on the cognitive psychologyexperiments, in the specific area of metamemory. The use of cognitive psychology concept ofmetacognition, through the literature on the links between metacognition and self-awarenessis then discussed. Finally, the last point in this literature review focused on the clinical use ofthe concept of metacognition, particularly concerning metacognitive alterations inschizophrenia.The second part of the thesis is devoted to experimental studies. The aim was todevelop and explore the characteristics of a metacognitive awareness measurement tool onshort-term memory, working memory, episodic memory verbal, executive functions andsocial cognition in a non-clinical population. The impact of this metacognitive process oncognitive performance, the relevance of an "on-line" metacognitive awareness measure(during the neuropsychological task), and an "end-line" metacognitive awareness measure(just after the award of neuropsychological testing) were explored. The impact of measures ofself-esteem, anxiety and depressive symptoms on metacognitive awareness scores "on-line"were studied.The third part of this thesis proposed to discuss the different results found and theappropriateness of using metacognitive awareness assessment tool with persons sufferingfrom schizophrenia.