Contemporary psychology, Vol. 17 No. 2, 2014.
Preliminary communication
Changes in metacognitive processes in the student population detected by the "Metacognition questionnaire"
Vladimir Kolesarić
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Marija Milić
orcid.org/0000-0003-3018-769X
; Department of Psychology, J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
S. Cartwright-Hutton and A. Wells published their Meta-Cognition Questionnaire with 65 items in 1997, each one provided with a Likert type scale for answers. The results collected by the authors showed that the questionnaire measures five empirically separate categories of beliefs and processes concentrated on one’s own thoughts, i.e.
metacognition. The five categories were: positive beliefs about worry, negative beliefs about controllability of thoughts and corresponding danger, cognitive confidence, negative beliefs about thoughts in general, including themes of superstitions, punishment and responsibility, and cognitive self-consciousness. The questionnaire translated into Croatian was administered on 163 students of psychology (years of study 1-5) in Osijek. Average results for the first and second year of study do not differ, but the results of the first year students differ from the results of those in the third, fourth and fifth
years of study – average results are progressively lower with the years of study. Factor analysis of our results gave six factors whose content is very similar to the original categories (proposed by the authors). Results of students of electrical engineering in Osijek fit into the picture obtained with students of psychology. Differences found
between results in the Meta-Cognition Questionnaire obtained by students in the first and second year of study in relation to the results of students in the third, fourth and fifth year of study, could have some important practical implications for help offered to students who encounter difficulties in their studies.
Keywords
metacognition; metacognitive experiences; cognition; thinking about thinking; self-consciousness
Hrčak ID:
145619
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2014.
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