Metacognition and motivation in creativity: examining the roles of self-efficacy and values as cues for metacognitive judgments

Abstract Metacognition and motivation are key components of self-regulation in creative performance, yet it remains unclear how person-level motivational variables shape task-specific expectancy beliefs and metacognitive judgments. This study aimed to explore how (person-level) creative self-efficacy and the perceived value of creativity inform (task-specific) judgments. A sample of 360 university students (176 women, M age = 22.1 years) completed scales measuring creative self-efficacy and perceived value of creativity, and reported their metacognitive experiences (perceived difficulty), task interest and metacognitive judgments in two verbal creativity tasks. The results from structural equation modeling showed that creative self-efficacy predicted the initial task expectancy and metacognitive judgments, while the perceived value of creativity primarily informed judgments and expectancies indirectly through task interest. Furthermore, task performance weakly predicted metacognitive judgments, with perceived difficulty and interest serving as additional cues. These findings underscore the importance of both stable person-level variables and dynamic task-specific experiences in creative self-regulation. The study suggests that environments fostering creative self-efficacy and values may sustain long-term engagement in creative tasks, with implications for educational and workplace settings.