Effects Of Perceptual Cues On Metacognitive Monitoring And Control

Learning is an everlasting theme of human development. While in the background of rapid development of science and technology and the acceleration of knowledge update, self-regulated learning has become increasing important. Self-regulated Learning refers to the processes whereby learners automatically apply metacognition, motivation, and behavior to learning efficiently (Zimmerman,1989). As an important part of self-regulated learning, Metacognition becoming the focus in self-regulated learning research. Metacognition is defined as cognition about cognition (Flavell,1977), which consisting of two key components:monitoring and control.As key components of metacognition, metacognitive monitoring and control process become the hot point of research in psychology domain. In recent years, increasing evidence has indicated that specific perceptual cues (such as font size, volume, weight, luminance, and so on) impacted on both metacognitive monitoring and control in spontaneously. These new findings attract researchers a lot and motivate researchers put their effort to find out the underlying cognitive mechanism of this phenomenon. The most prevailing interpretation of the influence of perceptual cues on metacognitive monitoring and control by far is processing fluency. However, it remains in controversy. Therefore, to clarify the specific contributions of processing fluency to the process of perceptual cues affecting metacognitive monitoring and control is of great significance. In theory, helps enriching the cognitive mechanism of metacognitive monitoring and control, and in practice, helps providing a scientific basis of teaching practice.Four experiments were conducted in the present study, which are all within-subject, single-factor design. In Experiment 1, identification task (identify the word is) and traditional JOL paradigm were connected to examine the the influence of font size (48pt/18pt) on JOLs and to evaluate the contribution of processing fluency on the relationship between font size and JOLs. In Experiment 2 (followed the same way as in Experiment 1), the influence of font clarity (clear/unclear) on JOLs and the contribution of processing fluency on the relationship between font clarity and JOLs were examined, for the purpose of providing a convergence evidence for the the influence of perceptual cues on metacognitive monitoring and the contribution of processing fluency. In Experiment 3 and Experiment 4, we extended these findings to the control processes. To be specific, identification task and Metcalfe paradigm were connected to examine the influence of font size (Experiment 3) and font clarity (Experiment 4) on first item seletion and to evaluate the contribution of processing fluency. The outcomes of this study as following:The outcomes in Experiment 1 showed that font size impacted on both processing fluency and judgment of learning. Compared to the smaller items, The larger items have higher processing fluency and the larger items were given higher JOLs. Further mediation analyses indicated that, processing fluency didn’t mediate the effects of font size on JOLs.The outcomes in Experiment 2 showed that font clarity impacted on both processing fluency and judgment of learning. Compared to the unclear items, The more clear items have higher processing fluency and the more clear items were given higher JOLs. Further mediation analyses indicated that, processing fluency mediated the effects of font clarity on JOLs.The outcomes in Experiment 3 showed that font size impacted on first item selection. Compared to the smaller items, larger items were preferred to study first Further mediation analyses indicated that, processing fluency mediated the effects of font zize on first item selection.The outcomes in Experiment 4 showed that font clarity impacted on first item selection. Compared to the unclear items, the more clear items were preferred to study first. Further mediation analyses indicated that, processing fluency didn’t mediate the effects of font clarity on first item selection.This study mainly reached the following two conclusions:Firstly, perceptual cues have widespreading effects on higher level cognition, which impacted on both metamemory monitoring and control.Secondly, the effects of perceptual cues on metamemory monitoring and control partly due to the processing...