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Metacognition is the ability to monitor and evaluate one's thoughts about learning and has been shown in some studies to improve the effectiveness of instructors. With dissection-based gross anatomy, instructors dynamically use their metacognition to monitor student learning and adapt their teaching at tableside. This study explored the metacognition of instructors as they taught in an anatomy course for allied health students. All instructors in a doctoral-level gross anatomy course at a single institution, including faculty, associate instructors (AIs), and teaching assistants (TAs), were invited to participate. At the start and end of the course, participating instructors completed pre- and post-questionnaires, which included the Teacher Metacognition Inventory (TMI), a 28-item survey that assesses metacognition as it relates to teaching. After labs, instructors completed reflective journals to provide deeper insight into their metacognition. Reflective journals were then thematically analyzed. Thirteen (52%) instructors participated in this study, including five faculty, three AI, and five TAs. Between the start and end of the course, total TMI score increased from 108.8 to 114.3 (p = 0.046). TAs exhibited the greatest change in total TMI score (Δmean = +11.4) followed by faculty (Δmean = +3.2) and AIs (Δmean = -0.7). Several themes were also identified. For example, TAs were more internally focused on content mastery, whereas faculty were externally focused on interpersonal factors (e.g., inclusive language). These insights into the metacognition of anatomy instructors, though limited in reliability and generalizability, may inform how to best support their professional development. Novices may benefit from content reviews, while experienced instructors may benefit from inclusivity or communications training.

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Working memory (WM) is crucial for adequate performance execution in effective decision-making, enabling individuals to identify patterns and link information by focusing on current and past situations. This work explored behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG) WM correlates through a novel decision-making task, based on real-life situations, assessing WM workload related to contextual variables. A total of 24 participants performed three task phases (encoding, retrieval, and metacognition) while their EEG activity (delta, theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands) was continuously recorded. From the three phases, three main behavioral indices were computed: Efficiency in complex Decision-making, Tolerance of Decisional Complexity, and Metacognition of Difficulties. Results showed the central role of alpha and beta bands during encoding and retrieval: decreased alpha/beta activity in temporoparietal areas during encoding might indicate activation of regions related to verbal WM performance and a load-related effect, while decreased alpha activity in the same areas and increased beta activity over posterior areas during retrieval might indicate, respectively, active information processing and focused attention. Evidence from correlational analysis between the three indices and EEG bands are also discussed. Integration of behavioral and metacognitive data gathered through this novel task and their interrelation with EEG correlates during task performance proves useful to assess WM workload during complex managerial decision-making.

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How does the act of explaining influence learning? Prior work has studied effects of explaining through a predominantly proximal lens, measuring short-term outcomes or manipulations within lab settings. Here, we ask whether the benefits of explaining extend to academic performance over time. Specifically, does the quality and frequency of student explanations predict students' later performance on standardized tests of math and English? In Study 1 (N = 127 5th-6th graders), participants completed a causal learning activity during which their explanation quality was evaluated. Controlling for prior test scores, explanation quality directly predicted both math and English standardized test scores the following year. In Study 2 (N = 20,384 10th graders), participants reported aspects of teachers' explanations and their own. Controlling for prior test scores, students' own explanations predicted both math and English state standardized test scores, and teacher explanations were linked to test performance through students' own explanations. Taken together, these findings suggest that benefits of explaining may result in part from the development of a metacognitive explanatory skill that transfers across domains and over time. Implications for cognitive science, pedagogy, and education are discussed.

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Many studies have explored the relationship between metacognition and academic achievement in mathematics, but the results vary. In this study, meta-analysis was used to explore this relationship between metacognition and academic achievement in mathematics and influencing factors. According to the literature search, a total of 147 studies (1986-2024) and 338 independent samples met the inclusion criteria (n = 698,096). The results revealed metacognition was significantly positively correlated with academic achievement in mathematics, r = 0.32, 95 % CI [0.30, 0.34], Z = 28.49. Moreover, the moderating effects of age, domain, and culture were significant (p < 0.01). In conclusion, Metacognition is closely associated with academic achievement in mathematics but also that age, domain, and culture have a considerable impact on their relationship. More specifically, the degree of correlation between metacognition and academic achievement in mathematics was on the rise from preschool to high school, while it was lower in college. Compared with general field metacognition, mathematical metacognition is more closely linked to mathematics academic achievement. Lastly, compared with British and American countries, Chinese metacognition was more closely related to academic achievement in mathematics.

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BACKGROUND: Self-directed learning is a fundamental skill and requirement for lifelong learning. It enables nursing students to enhance their learning ability, academic achievement, clinical performance, and adaptability to clinical situations. Metacognition (i.e., the process of reflecting on one's own cognitive activities) helps internalize learning strategies, construct self-concept, and solve problems. Positive psychological capital is a positive psychological state that stimulates the pursuit of individual development; it helps nursing students to cope effectively with various problems. However, it remains unclear if metacognition impacts self-directed learning ability (SDLA) through positive psychological capital; if confirmed, this would provide basic data for the development of effective teaching and learning methods. OBJECTIVES: To examine the mediating effect of positive psychological capital in the relationship between metacognition and SDLA in nursing students. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey study. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were 172 nursing students from four nursing colleges. METHODS: We measured metacognition, positive psychological capital, and SDLA using an online questionnaire; data were collected from September 7 to 23, 2023. We used Pearson's correlation coefficient to analyze correlations. To test the mediating effect of positive psychological capital, we used three-step regression analysis, Sobel's test, and Hayes's Process Macro - Model 4. RESULTS: SDLA was correlated with metacognition (r = 0.689, p < .001) and positive psychological capital (r = 0.605, p < .001). Metacognition influenced positive psychological capital (B = 0.324, p < .001) and SDLA (B = 0.614, p < .001). Positive psychological capital mediated the relationship between metacognition and SDLA (B = 0.297, p < .001; z = 3.214, p = .001 [Sobel test]). CONCLUSION: Learning strategies aiming to enhance nursing students' SDLA require successful metacognition to boost positive psychological capital. This study's empirical evidence on the potential benefits of linking metacognition with positive psychological capital has practical implications in relation to helping nursing students attain core academic goals.

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Do people have accurate metacognition of non-uniformities in perceptual resolution across (i.e., eccentricity) and around (i.e., polar angle) the visual field? Despite its theoretical and practical importance, this question has not yet been empirically tested. This study investigated metacognition of perceptual resolution by guessing patterns during a degradation (i.e., loss of high spatial frequencies) localization task. Participants localized the degraded face among the nine faces that simultaneously appeared throughout the visual field: fovea (fixation at the center of the screen), parafovea (left, right, above, and below fixation at 4° eccentricity), and periphery (left, right, above, and below fixation at 10° eccentricity). We presumed that if participants had accurate metacognition, in the absence of a degraded face, they would exhibit compensatory guessing patterns based on counterfactual reasoning ("The degraded face must have been presented at locations with lower perceptual resolution, because if it were presented at locations with higher perceptual resolution, I would have easily detected it."), meaning that we would expect more guess responses for locations with lower perceptual resolution. In two experiments, we observed guessing patterns that suggest that people can monitor non-uniformities in perceptual resolution across, but not around, the visual field during tasks, indicating partial in-the-moment metacognition. Additionally, we found that global explicit knowledge of perceptual resolution is not sufficient to guide in-the-moment metacognition during tasks, which suggests a dissociation between local and global metacognition.

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How we view the passage of past time determines how we face time itself as well as our futures, which has a strong impact particularly during the highly creative and malleable college years. Chinese culture cherishes time deeply, and for centuries there has been a tradition of "educating children and youth to inspect the passage of time." However, in today's age of information and intelligence, time has shown a trend toward fragmentation. How do contemporary Chinese college students view the passage of time, and what structures or content does it contain? The answer to this question remains uncertain, necessitating further exploration. Following Flavell's theory of metacognitive knowledge (MK), we adopted a semi-structured interview method and used the results to first outline the basic structure of Chinese college students' view of time passing, identifying four major aspects: priming aftereffect, life touching, positive promotion, and negative inhibition. Then, using the initial four-dimensional structure as a starting point, we developed the Metacognitive Knowledge of Time Passing Scale (MKTPS), and carried out exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to test its fit. The results showed that the four-factor scale and its 22 items had a good fit to the data. Third, the reliability and validity of the self-developed scale were tested. The results show that the internal consistency, split-half, and retest reliability of the MKTPS are good (all rs > 0.60). The construct validity of the MKTPS is also good (r between subscales is 0.33-0.60, r between subscales and total scale is 0.64-0.87), the convergent validity with Zimbardo's negative past time perspective is high (r = 0.37), and the discriminant validity with Zimbardo's future time perspective is significant (r = 0.18). Regarding criterion correlation validity, the total scores of the MKTPS have a significantly higher positive correlation with those of the time management disposition (TMD) scale (r = 0.45). Future points for studying the view of time passing in adults of all ages and across cultures field and shortcomings of the current study are also discussed.

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People are often overconfident about their ability to explain how everyday phenomena and artifacts work (devices, natural processes, historical events, etc.). However, the metacognitive mechanisms involved in this bias have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to establish whether the ability to perform deliberate and analytic processes moderates the effect of informational cues such as the social desirability of knowledge on the Illusion of Explanatory Depth (IOED). To this purpose, the participants' cognitive load was manipulated as they provided initial estimates of causal understanding of national historical events in the standard IOED paradigm. The results showed that neither the social desirability of specific causal knowledge nor the cognitive load manipulations had direct effects on the IOED. However, subsequent exploratory analyses indicated that high cognitive load was related to lower performance on concurrent memory tasks, which in turn was associated with a higher IOED magnitude. Higher analytical processing was also related to lower IOED. Implications for both dual-process models of metacognition and the design of task environments that help to reduce this bias are discussed.

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Students with strong metacognitive skills are positioned to learn and achieve more than peers who are still developing their metacognition. Yet, many students come to college without well-developed metacognitive skills. As part of a longitudinal study on metacognitive development, we asked when, why, and how first-year life science majors use metacognitive skills of planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Guided by the metacognition framework, we collected data from 52 undergraduates at three institutions using semi-structured interviews. We found that first-year students seek study recommendations from instructors, peers, and online resources when they plan their study strategies. First-year students struggle to accurately monitor their understanding and benefit when instructors help them confront what they do not yet know. First-year students evaluate the effectiveness of their study plans at two specific points: immediately after taking an exam and/or after receiving their grade on an exam. While first-year students may be particularly open to suggestions on how to learn, they may need help debunking myths about learning. First-year students acknowledge they are still learning to monitor and welcome formative assessments that help them improve the accuracy of their monitoring. First-year students may be primed to receive guidance on their metacognition at the points when they are most likely to evaluate the effectiveness of their study strategies and plans. Based on our results, we offer suggestions for instructors who want to support first-year students to further develop their metacognition.

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Touch plays a crucial role in providing humans with information from the external environment and can be perceived by humans as positively or negatively valenced. It is well documented that touch can differentially influence social functions, but very little is known about how touch can modulate (meta)cognition. Utilizing a within-subject design, participants were exposed to (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) no touch, alongside encoding of emotionally valenced (positive and negative) images. After a 20-minute delay, participants completed a Yes/No recognition task to investigate how touch influenced memory-related decision components (e.g. criterion, confidence). Results showed that, compared to the control condition, both positive and negative touch were associated with overall lower confidence ratings, a less liberal response bias and slower response times. Interestingly, for correct recognitions, only negative touch (vs. no touch) led to inappropriately lower confidence and slower response times while both confidence and response time remained unaltered in positive touch. Our findings provide the first evidence that positive and negative touch differentially interact with metacognitive memory-related decisions. Altered metacognitive judgements after being touched could have significant consequences in applied settings, such as situations of eyewitness testimony.

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One of the most ancient and widely used forms of cognitive offloading is the outsourcing of cognitive operations onto other humans. Here, we explore whether humans preferentially seek out and use information from more competent compared with less competent others in an ongoing cognitive task. Participants (N = 120) completed a novel computerised visuospatial working memory task where each trial required them to remember either one, five, or ten target locations and recall them after a brief delay. Next, participants watched two virtual people compete in a distinct memory game, where one performed relatively well, demonstrating a stronger memory, and the other performed relatively poorly, demonstrating a weaker memory. Finally, participants completed the initial memory task again, but this time, either the strong-memory person or the weak-memory person was available to help with recall on each trial. Our results showed that, through observation and without direct instruction, participants acquired beliefs about the virtual people's cognitive proficiencies and could readily draw upon these beliefs to inform offloading decisions. Participants were typically more likely to ask for help from the strong-memory person, and this tendency was independent from other factors known to drive cognitive offloading more generally, like task difficulty, unaided cognitive ability, and metacognitive confidence.

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The notions of metacognition and ego-resilienc seem to commonly represent an ability to adaptively adjust self-control to fit the requirements of environments. The latter presents a general mechanism of adaptive adjustment while the former presents a specific example of learning activity. As ego-resiliency was almost fully indicated by the General Factor of Personality (GFP) as the literature suggested, the present study tested the relationship between the GFP and metacognition and then compared their influences on learning adaptation. As found, the GFP highly overlapped with overall metacognition (r = 0.69). Within the three dimensions of metacognition, metacognitive skills correlated with the GFP much higher than metacognitive knowledge and experience, suggesting that the GFP is more linked with the application of metacognition in learning. By comparison, the GFP displayed much higher correlations with metacognitive skills and experience as well as learning adaptation than any Big Five traits, showing its incremental power in correlation with those variables. More importantly, in the mediation model, the GFP was found to be the root reason for the outcomes of learning adaptation and accounted for most of the impact of metacognition on learning adaptation. With these findings, the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

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This paper examines the decision-making processes of physicians and intelligent agents within the healthcare sector, particularly focusing on their characteristics, architectures, and approaches. We provide a theoretical insight into the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, emphasizing its potential to address various healthcare challenges. Defining features of intelligent agents are explored, including their perceptual abilities and behavioral properties, alongside their architectural frameworks, ranging from reflex-based to general learning agents, and contrasted with the rational decision-making structure employed by physicians. Through data collection, hypothesis generation, testing, and reflection, physicians exhibit a nuanced approach informed by adaptability and contextual understanding. A comparative analysis between intelligent agents and physicians reveals both similarities and disparities, particularly in adaptability and contextual comprehension. While intelligent agents offer promise in enhancing clinical decisions, challenges with types of dataset biases pose significant hurdles. Informing and educating physicians about AI concepts can build trust and transparency in intelligent programs. Such efforts aim to leverage the strengths of both human and AI toward improving healthcare delivery and outcomes.

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OBJECTIVE: We investigated how people used cues to make Judgments of Difficulty (JODs) while observing automation perform a task and when performing this task themselves. BACKGROUND: Task difficulty is a factor affecting trust in automation; however, no research has explored how individuals make JODs when watching automation or whether these judgments are similar to or different from those made while watching humans. Lastly, it is unclear how cue use when observing automation differs as a function of experience. METHOD: The study involved a visual search task. Some participants performed the task first, then watched automation complete it. Others watched and then performed, and a third group alternated between performing and watching. After each trial, participants made a JOD by indicating if the task was easier or harder than before. Task difficulty randomly changed every five trials. RESULTS: A Bayesian regression suggested that cue use is similar to and different from cue use while observing humans. For central cues, support for the UAH was bounded by experience: those who performed the task first underweighted central cues when making JODs, relative to their counterparts in a previous study involving humans. For peripheral cues, support for the MEH was unequivocal and participants weighted cues similarly across observation sources. CONCLUSION: People weighted cues similar to and different from when they watched automation perform a task relative to when they watched humans, supporting the Media Equation and Unique Agent Hypotheses. APPLICATION: This study adds to a growing understanding of judgments in human-human and human-automation interactions.

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BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that mindfulness is associated with slower passage of time in everyday life, and with lower self-reported time pressure. This study investigates some of the potential mechanisms behind these relationships. METHODS: 318 participants submitted their responses to an online survey which collected data regarding passage of time judgments, time pressure, trait mindfulness, temperament, task load, and metacognitions about time. Using commonality and dominance analyses, we explored how these variables contributed, either alone or jointly, to predicting how fast (or slow) time seems to pass for participants, or how pressed for time they felt. RESULTS: Mindfulness and temperament had some overlaps in their ability to predict passage of time judgments and time pressure for durations at the month and 2-month scales. The temperamental trait of extraversion/surgency, as well as the Non-judging and Non-reacting facets of mindfulness were among the best predictors of passage of time judgments and time pressure. Attention-related variables were mainly related to time perception via their involvement in joint effects with other variables. Results also suggested that metacognitions about time interacted with other variables in predicting passage of time judgments, but only at the month scale. Finally, among all the variables included in this study, task load had the highest degree of involvement in predictions of self-reported time pressure at the week and month scales, but it contributed relatively little to predicting passage of time judgments. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that mindfulness relates to passage of time through its involvement in inferential processes. The data also shows how different factors are related to PoTJ at different time scales. Finally, results suggest the existence of both similarities and differences in how passage of time and time pressure relate to the other included variables.

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Reporting discomfort when noise affects listening experience suggests that listeners may be aware, at least to some extent, of adverse environmental conditions and their impact on listening experience. This involves monitoring internal states (effort and confidence). Here we quantified continuous self-report indices that track one's own internal states and investigated age-related differences in this ability. We instructed two groups of young and older adults to continuously report their confidence and effort while listening to stories in fluctuating noise. Using cross-correlation analyses between the time series of fluctuating noise and those of perceived effort or confidence, we showed that (1) participants modified their assessment of effort and confidence based on variations in the noise, with a 4 s lag; (2) there were no differences between the groups. These findings imply extending this method to other areas, expanding the definition of metacognition, and highlighting the value of this ability for older adults.

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Cognitive scientists differentiate the "minimal self" - subjective experiences of agency and ownership in our sensorimotor interactions with the world - from declarative beliefs about the self that are sustained over time. However, it remains an open question how individual sensory experiences of agency are integrated into the belief ofbeing an agent.We administered a sensorimotor task to measure subjects' (n = 195) propensity to classify stimuli as self-caused and metacognitive monitoring of such judgements, and we compared these behavioral metrics to declarative beliefs about their agency. Subjects who were less sensitive to control cues also reported more negative agency beliefs, though positive beliefs were not clearly correlated with any sensorimotor measure. Importantly, this relationship between first-order sensitivity and declarative beliefs essentially disappears when controlling for metacognitive sensitivity. Results suggest agency beliefs are not related directly to the propensity to make positive agency judgements but are connected through introspective access.

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Crowdsourcing deals with solving problems by assigning them to a large number of non-experts called crowd using their spare time. In these systems, the final answer to the question is determined by summing up the votes obtained from the community. The popularity of these systems has increased by facilitating access for community members through mobile phones and the Internet. One of the issues raised in crowdsourcing is how to choose people and how to collect answers. Usually, users are separated based on their performance in a pre-test. Designing the pre-test for performance calculation is challenging; The pre-test questions should be selected to assess characteristics in individuals that are relevant to the main questions. One of the ways to increase the accuracy of crowdsourcing systems is by considering individuals' cognitive characteristics and decision-making models to form a crowd and improve the estimation of their answer accuracy to questions. People can estimate the correctness of their responses while making a decision. The accuracy of this estimate is determined by a quantity called metacognition ability. Metacoginition is referred to the case where the confidence level is considered along with the answer to increase the accuracy of the solution. In this paper, by both mathematical and experimental analysis, we would answer the following question: Is it possible to improve the performance of a crowdsourcing system by understanding individuals' metacognition and recording and utilizing users' confidence in their answers?

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The study aims to explore the relationship among metacognition (MC), fear of disease of progression (FoP), psychological distress (PD), and quality of life (QoL), and verify whether FoP and PD have a chain mediating effect between MC and QoL. 231 hematologic tumor patients in a large tertiary hospital were investigated by using Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire-30, Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale. Data analyses were performed using IBM SPSS (version 25.0) and the PROCESS macro (version 4.1). The results showed that the direct impact of MC on QoL was not statistically significant. However, the indirect influence of MC on QoL manifest through the independent influences of PD and FoP, as well as the chain mediating effect of "PD → FoP." In addition, all four dimensions of QoL (physical, social and family, emotional, and functional) satisfy the chain mediation model, except for the social and family domain. These insights advance our comprehension of the intricate interplay between MC and QoL, underscoring the importance of improving MC to alleviate patients' PD, mitigate FoP, and ultimately improve the QoL of hematologic tumor patients.

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Changes in the national examination structures have renewed interest in the development of test-taking strategies for professional students in the health sciences. It is often assumed that these high-achieving students have developed proficient test-taking skills and abilities prior to admittance. However, the assessments in these programs and for national licensure require an elevated level of reasoning and integration with clinical concepts. It was hypothesized that the implementation of an immersive test-taking strategies program would improve dental student perceptions of their abilities. A "toolbox" of four methods was implemented which included: 1. An introductory video that provided students with ten tips for approaching high-level exam questions 2. Problem solution videos interspersed with class practice problems to walk students independently through rationales 3. Collaborative group assessments in which students implemented the strategies in teams to prepare for exams and 4. Unit exam debriefings to review the question rationales. While all methods were positively reviewed on surveys, students indicated that the problem solution videos and the collaborative group assessments were more helpful and improved their test-taking skills significantly more than the other strategies (P < 0.01, one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test). Students felt they had developed strong test-taking strategies (average of 4.21 on a 5-point scale, SD 0.76) and felt more prepared for the Integrated National Board Dental Examination (4.48, SD 0.66). These results suggest that a multi-pronged approach with frequent opportunities to practice test-taking strategies can improve student perceptions of their ability to master high-level and integrated assessment questions.