The Influence of Divided Attention on Learners' Metacognition

Abstract

Multitasking leads to decreased learning and memory performance (e.g., Carrier, Rosen, Cheever & Lim, 2015). Learning while multitasking could benefit from accurate metacognitive monitoring processes, which provide feedback about learning processes and exert control to enhance learning. However, multitasking might influence the accuracy of metacognitive monitoring processes, leading to less effective control in learning behaviors. Across four experiments, I examined the influence of divided attention on learners’ metacognitive monitoring during learning. The results showed that learners under divided attention were able to make accurate predictions about their memory. Experiments 1-3 showed that learners accurately predicted the decrements of their memory under divided attention. Also, when learners predicted their memory performance, they successfully considered different cues, including the influence of relatedness of word pairs and font color. Moreover, learners’ beliefs about cues influenced their memory predictions even under divided attention conditions: learners’ memory predictions were influenced by their beliefs about the influence of font color. However, under divided attention, learners failed to consider the influence of presentation time when predicting their memory; learners did not predict that memory would improve when word pairs were presented longer. Also, under divided attention, learners failed to inhibit the interference from less valid cues. Different from under full attention, learners considered the influence of font color when predicting their memory performance under divided attention even though font color was not a valid cue for memory. In addition, this study also suggested an important role of working memory load during metacognitive monitoring processes.