The development of metacognitive causal explanations

• Published in: Learning and individual differences Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 227 - 238
• Main Authors: Alexander, Joyce M, Fabricius, William V, Fleming, Victoria Manion, Zwahr, Melissa, Brown, Shannon A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 2003
• Subjects: Development; Intelligence; Metacognitive causal explanation; Intelligence; Development; Metacognitive causal explanation
• ISSN: 1041-6080; 1873-3425
• DOI: 10.1016/S1041-6080(02)00091-2

Metacognitive causal explanations reflect a child's understanding about how or why a strategy works. Two studies examined the growth of metacognitive causal explanations over time. Study 1 found an increase in the sophistication of early elementary school children's causal explanations over a 3-year period, although the mean intelligence score in the group was relatively high. Study 2 was conducted with children from a wider range of intelligence. Only those children with higher intelligence scores were likely to shift to more sophisticated metacognitive causal explanations over a 2-year period. Results from the two studies together suggest that the relationship between intelligence and metacognitive knowledge is much more than monotonic throughout development [Dev. Rev. 15 (1995) 1]. Indeed, higher levels of intelligence increase the likelihood that children will move from less sophisticated to more sophisticated levels of metacognitive understanding, possibly laying the foundation for more sophisticated later learning.