| One hundred eighty-nine college students were divided into three groups representing high, moderate, and low metacognitive self-regulation based on self-reports from an introductory physiology course. Students were randomly assigned to one of three visualization strategies based on the generative theory of textbook design and given instruction about the physiology of the human heart. To control for differences in prior knowledge, a MANCOVA was performed and revealed no significant main effect for metacognitive self-regulation or visualization strategy. In addition, no significant interaction was found. While a significant positive relationship was found between metacognitive self-regulation and strategy use during the study, the relationship between metacognitive self-regulation and posttest performance was virtually non-existent. In contrast, a significant positive relationship was found between prior knowledge and posttest performance, suggesting that metacognitive self-regulation during well-structured tasks requires prior knowledge to be effective. |
