Metacognitive Prompts Influence 7- to 9-Year-Olds’ Executive Function at the Levels of Task Performance and Neural Processing

To elucidate the role of metacognitive reflection in the development of children's executive function (EF) skills, the current study examined relations among implicit and explicit forms of metacognition in 7- to 9-year-olds during performance based on the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), while experimentally manipulating the propensity to reflect on the task. Results showed that instructions to reflect led to improved task accuracy and better metacognitive control, but only in younger children, likely because older children were already engaging in reflection. Individual differences in trait mindfulness were related to a similarly reflective mode of responding, characterized by improved task accuracy and metacognitive control. In contrast, articulatory suppression impaired children's task accuracy and metacognitive monitoring. Additionally, simply asking children to make metacognitive judgments without extra instructions decreased the amplitude of event-related potential (ERP) indices of error detection (the error-related negativity; ERN) and conflict detection (the N2). Finally, individual differences in trait anxiety were related to larger Pe amplitudes. Taken together, the current findings reinforce theoretical frameworks integrating metacognition and EF and highlight the shared influence of metacognitive reflection across multiple levels of analysis.