Components of Metacognition Can Function Independently Across Development

It is often argued that metacognition includes 2 components: monitoring and control. However, it is unclear whether these components can operate independently, or whether they always operate as part of a hierarchy. The current study attempts to address this issue. In Experiment 1 (N = 90), age-related differences were assessed to examine the developmental trajectories of monitoring and control in 5- and 7-year-old children and adults. In Experiment 2 (N = 90) and Experiment 3 (N = 90), a scaffolding approach was taken with the same age groups to investigate correspondences in intervention-related changes in monitoring and control. Several dissociations between monitoring and control were found: In Experiment 2, strategy instruction affected metacognitive control, but not metacognitive monitoring, whereas in Experiment 3, performance feedback affected metacognitive monitoring, but not metacognitive control. These findings suggest that the monitoring and control components of metacognition can operate independently, challenging simple feed-forward models of metacognition.