Accuracy of metacognitive monitoring affects learning of texts

Metacognitive monitoring affects regulation of study, and this affects overall learning. The authors created differences in monitoring accuracy by instructing participants to generate a list of 5 keywords that captured the essence of each text. Accuracy was greater for a group that wrote keywords after a delay (delayed-keyword group) than for a group that wrote keywords immediately after reading (immediate-keyword group) and a group that did not write keywords (no-keyword group). The superior monitoring accuracy produced more effective regulation of study. Differences in monitoring accuracy and regulation of study, in turn, produced greater overall test performance (reading comprehension) for the delayed-keyword group versus the other groups. The results are framed in the context of a discrepancy-reduction model of self-regulated study.