THE GENERALITY VS DOMAIN-SPECIFICITY OF METACOGNITIVE SKILLS IN NOVICE LEARNING ACROSS DOMAINS

A first objective of this study is to determine the generality versus domain-specificity of the metacognitive skills that students bring int o new learning situations. Additionally, this study addresses the rela tionship between intelligence and metacognitive skillfulness as predic tors of novice learning. Fourteen high or (relatively) low intelligent psychology freshmen (novices in the domains of physics and statistics ) participated in the experiment. Subjects passed through three differ ent simulation environments representing physics, statistics, and a fi ctitious domain. Both the subject's metacognitive skillfulness and lea rning performances were assessed for each domain. Results support the generality of novice metacognitive skills across domains. Furthermore, metacognitive skillfulness contributes to novice learning partly inde pendent of intellectual ability. Implications for metacognitive skill training are being discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.