Anastasia Efklides

Metacognition Defining : Its Facets and Levels of Functioning in Relation to Self-Regulation and Co-regulation

Research in the field of metacognisor a multifacted phenomenon is in the main fragmental without much theoritical integration of the findings related to its various facets. Moreover, metacognition is usually conceived of as an induvidual and conscious process that serves the regulation of cognition. However, there is gnosing evidence that metacognition also fractors at a nonconscious level, is involved in the co-regulation of cognition in collaborative settings, and interacts with affect in the self-regulation of behavior. Based on these considerations, a multifacted and moldlevel model of metacognition is proposed that broadens Nelson and Narens entreceptualization of mutlicognition. The implications for theory and measurement of metacognition as well as for inserventions, involving metacongition are explored.

Interactions of Metacognition With Motivation and Affect in Self-Regulated Learning: The MASRL Model

Metacognition, motivation, and affect are components of self-regulated learning (SRL) that interact. The “metacognitive and affective model of self-regulated learning” (the MASRL model) distinguishes two levels of functioning in SRL, namely, the Person level and the Task × Person level. At the Person level interactions between trait-like characteristics such as cognitive ability, metacognitive knowledge and skills, self-concept, perceptions of control, attitudes, emotions, and motivation in the form of expectancy-value beliefs and achievement goal orientations are hypothesized. These person characteristics guide top-down self-regulation. At the Task × Person level, that is, the level at which SRL events take place, metacognitive experiences, such as feeling of difficulty, and online affective states play a major role in task motivation and bottom-up self-regulation. Reciprocal relations between the two levels of functioning in SRL are also posited. The implications of the MASRL model for research and theory are discussed.

Subjective quality of life in old age in Greece: The effect of demographic factors, emotional state and adaptation to aging.

Subjective quality of life can be defined in terms of life satisfaction (LS), subjective well-being (SWB), happiness, and morale. In our study, we investigated the effect of demographic, health, af...

From Collectivism to Individualism? the Acculturation of Greek Immigrants in Australia

The present study examined whether Greek immigrants in Australia have retained traditional Greek values and behaviours or moved to an integration of these with Anglo-Australian values and behaviours. The sample consisted of Anglo- and Greek-Australian parents and young adolescents and a comparison group of Greeks, resident in Greece. Measures were obtained of values and behaviows considered to be appropriate for family members in the culture. Results showed that Greek-Australians retained the collectivistic values of their Greek culture while Anglo-Australians demonstrated a more individualistic orientation. There was evidence for convergence of Anglo- and Greek-Australian perceptions of appropriate behaviours and thus support for a view that acculturation is more likely to be manifested in behaviours than in core values. Although there were some differences in expressed values and behaviours, overall there was little evidence for a cultural gap between Greek-Australian parents and their adolescents.

Neo-Piagetian Theories of Cognitive Development : Implications and Applications for Education

Part 1 General Principles of Cognitive Organization and Change and Implications for Education: 1. Cognitive development in educational contexts: implications of skill theory, Thomas R. Bidell and Kurt W. Fischer 2. Modes of knowing, forms of knowing, and ways of schooling, John B. Biggs 3. The role of central conceptual structures in the development of childrens scientific and mathematical thought, Robbie Case 4. Social organisation of cognitive development: internalization and externalization of constraint systems, Jaan Valsiner 5. Structural systems in developing cognition, science and education, Andreas Demetriou, et al. Part 2 Inducing Cognitive Change: 6. Problems and issues in intervention studies, Michael Shayer 7. Training, cognitive change and individual differences, Anastasia Efklides, et al 8. Improving operational abilities in children, Ben o Csap o 9. Training scientific reasoning in children and adolescents, Luc Goossens 10. Value and limitations of analogs in teaching mathematics, Graeme S. Halford and Gillian M. Boulton-Lewis 11. Developing thinking abilities in arithmetic class, Lauren B. Resnick et al 12. Causal theories, reasoning strategies and conflict resolution by experts and novices in Newtonian mechanics, J. Ignacio Pozo and Mario Carretero 13. Cognitive prerequisites of reading and spelling: a longitudinal approach Wolfgang Schneider and Jan Carol Naslund Concluding Chapter 14. Returning to school: review and discussion, John B. Biggs.

Effects of cognitive ability and affect on school mathematics performance and feelings of difficulty

Research on cognitive ability and affect has indicated that both of them may function at various levels of generality (LG). This study aimed to investigate the possible effects of LG on school mathematics performance and related feelings of difficulty. Two hundred forty-three students of seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of both genders participated in the study. They were tested with cognitive ability tasks, affective questionnaires, and two school mathematics batteries. The difficulty of each of the school mathematics task was also rated on a 4-point scale. The two school mathematics batteries and affective questionnaires were re-administered 1 year after the first testing. Rates of difficulty were also taken. Path analysis showed that performance was mainly influenced by cognitive ability factors, whereas feelings of difficulty were influenced by performance, cognitive ability, and affective factors. The long-term relations between cognitive and affective factors are discussed.

Feeling of difficulty: An aspect of monitoring that influences control

This study aimed at delimiting possible relations of feeling of difficulty (FOD) with control ideas pertaining to a particular task. Participants were 274 students of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. They were tested with two mathematical tasks; they were also asked to give ratings of the feeling of difficulty at 4 phases: In advance of problem solving, during planning of the solution, after solution production, and an overall estimation. Participants also gave ratings for control ideas such as need to know the rule, to do the computations right, to have practice, to use one’s thinking and to have help from others. Path analysis and ANOVAs were used for the identification of the relations and differentiations of ratings in the four phases of problem solving. Results indicated that FOD varied from phase to phase and influenced ideas related to control. Feeling of difficulty in the main was only indirectly related to performance via control ideas.RésuméLe but de cette recherche était d’examiner les relations possibles enire Sentiment de Difficulté et idées sur le contrôle à exercer dans l’éxécution d’une tâche particulière. Les sujets étaient 274 élèves de 7ème, 8ème et 9ème années. Deux tâches mathématiques ont servi de test; les sujets devaient évaluer leur Sentiment de Difficulté à quatre étapes de la réalisation de la tâche: avant la résolution de problème, pendant la planification de la solution, après la production de la solution, et sous forme d’une estimation générale. Ils devaient également fournier des estimation relatives à l’importance de certains aspects du contrôle de l’activité: besoin de connaître la règle, de ne pas se tromper dans les calculs, d’être entraîné, d’utiliser ses propres idées et d’avoir l’aide d’autrui etc. Une analyse de parcours et des ANOVAs ont permis d’établir les relations et les différenciations entre évaluations aux quatre phases de la réalisation de la tâche. Les résultats indiquent que le sentiment de difficulté varie d’une étape à l’autre et influence les idées concernant le contrôle. Dans l’ensemble il apparaît que le sentiment de difficulté n’est qu’indirectement lié à la performance, par le biais des idées sur le contrôle.

Wechsler Memory Scale, Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test, and Everyday Memory Questionnaire in Healthy Adults and Alzheimer Patients

Summary: The Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) is a laboratory-based memory test that has been criticized for its lack of ecological validity and for not testing long-term memory. A more recent memory test, which aims at testing everyday memory, is the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test (RBMT); it tests prospective memory and other forms of memory not tapped by WMS. However, even this test does not capture all aspects of everyday memory problems often reported by adults. These problems are the object of the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ). This study aimed at identifying the relationships between these three memory tests. The differential effect of Alzheimers disease (AD) on the above relationships was also studied. The sample consisted of 233 healthy adults (20 to 75+ years of age) and 39 AD patients (50 to 75 years of age). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed the following latent factors: Verbal Memory, Visual Reconstruction, Orientation, Message (action embedded in spatial context), Visual Recognition, ...

The concept of 'ageing well' in ten Latin American and European countries

ABSTRACT A review of several studies examining the lay concept of successful ageing and related concepts leads to the conclusion that elders from different cultures appear to agree on most of the components identified in the literature. From the research emerges a multidimensional conceptualisation of ‘successful ageing’ that is described on the basis of physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains, and which coincides with most theoretical and empirical definitions. The main goal of the present research is to study similarities and differences between concepts of ‘successful ageing’ in several Latin American and European countries and in two different age groups, and also to examine whether a similar structure of the lay concept can be found across both continents. The results show minor differences at item levels among countries, continents and age groups, and a similar internal structure across them.

Structure and Development of Causal-Experimental Thought: From Early Adolescence to Youth.

This study investigated the structure and development of causal-experimental thought. Ss (N = 260) from 12 to 16 years of age were examined by 3 test batteries. The batteries involved items addressing combinatorial, hypothesis handling, experimentation, and model construction abilities. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that these abilities, although distinct from each other, do share a common functional core, and they are organized in a higher order causal-experimental specialized structural system. Rasch scaling indicated that these 4 kinds of abilities follow overlapping developmental trajectories. Saltus modeling suggested that development is continuous rather than discontinuous. Individual differences were found in the rate of acquisition but not in the structure of abilities