Grade 4 children can metacognitively monitor their working memory performance, tending to be over-confident as task difficulty increases¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2017 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Grade 4 children's confidence in their working memory decisions decreases with task difficulty, but less than accuracy does, indicating over-confidence at higher loads. → Freeman 2017

Evidence¶

Freeman 2017¶

Freeman, Emily E.; Karayanidis, Frini; Chalmers, Kerry A. (2017). Metacognitive monitoring of working memory performance and its relationship to academic achievement in Grade 4 children. Learning and Individual Differences, Vol. 57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2017.06.003

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Correlational study of 73 Grade 4 children who completed the WMPT at five difficulty levels (a repeated-measures task), analysed with correlations and regressions; the authors note that its correlational nature limits causal or directional claims. The discussion reports confidence fell with difficulty but less than accuracy, so children "tend to be over-confident in their ability", especially on difficult tasks.

"The expected decrease in children’s confidence in their decisions on the WMPT was also found, but this decrease was not as large as the decrease in accuracy, suggesting that while metacognitive monitoring of working memory is related to performance, children tend to be over-confident in their ability."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• With increasing n-back task difficulty, reaction times increase and accuracy decreases — related
• Confidence on the WMPT predicts numeracy but not reading or spelling
• WMPT accuracy is positively correlated with reading, numeracy, spelling and composite achievement scores — related
• WMPT accuracy, confidence, Bias Index and Absolute Accuracy Index all change significantly with task difficulty — related
• Working memory load degrades discrimination accuracy and slows responses in youth — related
• At low memory loads, older adults report less uncertainty than younger adults despite making larger errors, suggesting an overconfidence bias — related
• A minority of item judgments show downregulation of confidence after pre-monitoring, suggesting differentiated evaluation can sometimes trigger more accurate monitoring — related
• Hard-easy effect: students are more accurate but underconfident on easy items and less accurate but overconfident on difficult items — a broader claim this one bears on
• Metacognitive monitoring bias and precision modulate when students stop studying relative to their goals — related