The Relation Between Intellectual and Meta-cognitive Skills in Early Adolescence

The first objective of this study was establishing to what extent meta-cognitive skill is associated with intelligence. As a second objective, the impact of hints on the execution of meta cognitive skills was investigated. Both issues have major implications for the training and transferability of meta-cognitive skills during performance on a representative school task. First, a standardized intelligence-test was administered to a group of first-year secondary-school students. Next, these students solved six math word problems, three without meta-cognitive hints and three including these hints. Meta-cognitive skillfulness was assessed through systematical observation, while learning performance consisted of performance on a math task and grade point average (GPA). Results show that without hints meta cognitive skillfulness is the main predictor of initial learning, while intelligence additionally enters the regression equation after the presentation of meta-cognitive hints. GPA also appears to be predicted by a combination of intellectual and meta-cognitive skills. Consequences for the early acquisition of meta-cognitive skills are discussed.