Beyond Monitoring Accuracy: The Role of Perceived Competence in Learners’ Study Decisions

Traditional theories of self-regulated learning propose a relationship between metacognitive monitoring and control: learners assess their own understanding and use those judgments to guide future study decisions (e.g., Nelson & Narens, 1994; Koriat, 1997; Dunlosky & Metcalfe, 2008). However, study choices may not be governed by monitoring alone. In addition to judgments about specific knowledge or confidence in particular answers, learners also hold general beliefs about their global competence (e.g., “I’m good at this”). These feelings of perceived competence may diverge from moment-to-moment metacognitive accuracy, creating a mismatch between the metacognitive and motivational systems. A learner might be successful and able to identify which items they know and which they don’t, yet still doubt their overall ability, resulting in overly cautious decisions like rewatching lectures or rereading texts, rather than engaging with active practice. This study investigates the extent that learners’ study preferences reflect what they know (metacognitive monitoring) versus how they feel about their general ability (perceived competence). We propose a framework that integrates monitoring-control theories of metacognition with expectancy-value theories of motivation. We hypothesize that motivational variables such as perceived competence will moderate how learners use metacognitive information to make instructional decisions, especially under different types of task difficulty and social feedback.