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Contents
First defined in 1977 by Flavell and Wellman in the context of
Metamemory. Four levels of mental activity: 1. Actual implementation
using hard-wired processes in the brain, 2. Retrieval from semantic
storage, 3. Methods and strategies and 4. Metacognition, i.e. the
knowledge, awareness, and (conscious or implicit) control/ monitoring
of the lower levels of cognition.
Examples of metacognitive skills (from developmental as well as
expert-novice studies) - awareness/ knowledge of:
- Difference between understanding and memorizing
- Which strategies to apply
- What is it that one does not understand? Assessing one's own
level of comprehension
- When is this particular explanation relevant to my way of
thinking about this problem?
- Monitoring one's own progress, checking the plausibility of
steps in problem solving in order to anticipate or detect an error
- Checking own solutions for plausibility and correctness.