Testing the dependency of metacognitive monitoring and executive functions in children: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Abstract Accurate metacognitive monitoring is crucial for effective regulation of learning and performance, yet little is known about its cognitive determinants in childhood. The present study investigated the role of executive functions – specifically inhibition and updating of working memory – in children’s metacognitive monitoring accuracy. While prior research has established correlational links between executive functions and metacognitive skills, the current experimental study aimed to provide insight into the causal nature of these relationships by systematically manipulating executive function demands within a task and examining the impact on local monitoring judgment accuracy. Sixty children from two age groups (7 and 9 years) participated, providing cross-sectional data; children in the younger cohort were reassessed approximately 17 months later, contributing longitudinal data. Data were analysed using linear mixed effect models and the results indicated that executive functions and metacognitive monitoring have a dependent relationship in childhood. Moreover, this dependency strengthened with age for inhibition and with repeated task exposure for both inhibition and working memory. These findings are consistent with a competition for resources account of the association between executive functions and metacognitive monitoring, suggesting that when cognitive resources are occupied resolving cognitive conflict or maintaining items in memory, fewer resources remain for monitoring processes and monitoring accuracy suffers. Results are also interpreted within the cue-utilization view of metacognitive monitoring, suggesting developmental changes in the cues children rely on when forming monitoring judgments and a differential dependency of these cues on executive functions.