“I’ll remember everything no matter what!”: The role of metacognitive abilities in the development of young children’s prospective memory

Lavis, Lydia; Mahy, Caitlin E.V. · 2021 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105117

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Summary

This study investigates the development of prospective memory (PM)—the ability to remember to perform future intentions—in young children, specifically focusing on the role of metacognitive abilities. While PM is critical for daily functioning, little is known about young children’s awareness of their PM capabilities (metamemory), how task difficulty influences this awareness, or how metacognitive control relates to PM performance. The authors aimed to fill gaps in the literature by examining procedural metamemory through predictions and postdictions, assessing the impact of task difficulty, and exploring relationships between PM, retrospective memory (RM), executive functioning, and metacognitive control. The researchers tested 131 children aged 4 to 6 years. Participants completed a PM card-sorting task with either a salient (easy) or nonsalient (difficult) cue, an episodic recall task, a Simon Says inhibition task, a backward word span working memory task, and a metacognitive control task involving confidence judgments. Children made predictions before and postdictions after both the PM and RM tasks using continuous visual scales. This design allowed for the comparison of metamemory accuracy across different memory types and the assessment of how executive functions and metacognitive control predicted performance. The results indicated that actual PM performance improved with age and was significantly worse in the difficult (nonsalient) condition. However, children’s PM predictions did not increase with age nor were they affected by task difficulty, suggesting a lack of sensitivity to task demands prior to execution. In contrast, PM postdictions were affected by task difficulty. Accuracy in both PM and RM predictions and postdictions improved with age. Notably, PM postdictions were the strongest predictor of actual PM performance, whereas predictions best predicted episodic recall performance. Furthermore, children with better metacognitive control demonstrated superior PM performance and more accurate PM predictions. Executive functioning measures were also assessed, though the primary findings highlighted the specific link between metacognitive control and PM accuracy. These findings suggest that young children exhibit optimism regarding their memory performance, often failing to adjust predictions based on task difficulty. The study highlights that while actual PM abilities develop with age, metacognitive awareness lags behind, particularly in the form of pre-task predictions. The strong relationship between metacognitive control and PM performance implies that the ability to monitor and regulate cognitive states is a key driver of prospective memory development. This underscores the importance of distinguishing between monitoring (postdictions) and control (strategic adjustment) in understanding how children develop the metacognitive skills necessary for effective memory management.

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• prospective memory interruptions