Metacognition and confidence: comparing math to other academic subjects

Two studies addressed student metacognition in math, measuring confidence accuracy about math performance. Underconfidence would be expected in light of pervasive math anxiety. However, one might alternatively expect overconfidence based on previous results showing overconfidence in other subject domains. Metacognitive judgments and performance were assessed for biology, literature, and mathematics tests. In Study 1, high school students took three different tests and provided estimates of their performance both before and after taking each test. In Study 2, undergraduates similarly took three shortened SAT II Subject Tests. Students were overconfident in predicting math performance, indeed showing greater overconfidence compared to other academic subjects. It appears that both overconfidence and anxiety can adversely affect metacognitive ability and can lead to math avoidance. The results have implications for educational practice and other environments that require extensive use of math

Selecting Knowledge for Category Learning

We present a category learning experiment in which subjects faced the knowledge selection problem, i.e., they needed to use their observations to determine which prior knowledge would be useful for learning. The issue of putting prior knowledge into neural network models is reviewed, and we present a new model which addresses the knowledge selection problem. This model gives a good account of the experimental results

Applying for National Science Foundation Funding in Cognitive Science: Cognition, Computation, Development, Education, and Neuroscience

Variation in second language acquisition is evident from earliest stages. This study examined effects of learning tasks (retrieval practice, comprehension, verbal repetition) on comprehension of Turkish as a new language. Undergraduates (N = 156) engaged with Turkish spoken dialogues in a computer-assisted language learning session via Zoom, with learning tasks manipulated between-subjects. Participants completed pre/posttests assessing comprehension of Turkish number and case marking, a vocabulary test, and open-response questions gauging explicit awareness. The retrieval-practice group showed highest performance overall, after controlling for significant effects of nonverbal ability and pretest. For comprehension of number/case marking, the comprehension group performed comparably to the retrieval-practice group. For vocabulary comprehension, the verbal-repetition group performed comparably to the retrieval-practice group. Differential performance associated with learning tasks indicates benefits of testing and production and aligns with transfer-appropriate processing. As predicted by the noticing hypothesis, explicit awareness of number and case marking correlated with comprehension accuracy

Judgments of learning and improvement

Can learners accurately judge the rate of their learning? Rates of learning may be informative when study time is allocated across materials, and students' judgments of their learning rate have been proposed as a possible metacognitive tool. Participants estimated how much they improved between presentations in multitrial learning situations in which n-gram paragraphs (in Experiments 1 and 2) or word pairs (Experiments 3 and 4) were learned . In the first experiment, participants rated improvement on a percentage scale, whereas on the second and third, judgments were given on a 0–6 scale. Experiment 4 used both a percentage scale and an absolute number scale. The main result was that judgments of improvement were poorly correlated with actual improvement and, in one case, were negatively correlated. Although judgments of improvement were correlated with changes in judgments of learning, they were not reliable indicators of actual improvement. Implications are discussed for theoretical work on metacognition

Ectopic Expression of E2F1 Stimulates β-Cell Proliferation and Function

OBJECTIVE-Generating functional beta-cells by inducing their proliferation may provide new perspectives for cell therapy in diabetes. Transcription factor E2F1 controls G(1)- to S-phase transition during the cycling of many cell types and is required for pancreatic beta-cell growth and function. However, the consequences of overexpression of E2F1 in beta-cells are unknown. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-The effects of E2F1 overexpression on beta-cell proliferation and function were analyzed in isolated rat beta-cells and in transgenic mice. RESULTS-Adenovirus AdE2F1-mediated overexpression of E2F1 increased the proliferation of isolated primary rat beta-cells 20-fold but also enhanced beta-cell death. Coinfection with adenovirus Ad Akt expressing a constitutively active form of Akt (protein kinase B) suppressed beta-cell death to control levels. At 48 h after infection, the total beta-cell number and insulin content were, respectively, 46 and 79% higher in AdE2F1+AdAkt-infected cultures compared with untreated. Conditional overexpression of E2F1 in mice resulted in a twofold increase of beta-cell proliferation and a 70% increase of pancreatic insulin content, but did not increase beta-cell mass. Glucose-challenged insulin release was increased, and the mice showed protection against toxin-induced diabetes. CONCLUSIONS-Overexpression of E2F1, either in vitro or in vivo, can stimulate beta-cell proliferation activity. In vivo E2F1 expression significantly increases the insulin content and function of adult beta-cells, making it a strategic target for therapeutic manipulation of beta-cell function. Diabetes 59:1435-1444, 201