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I know better! Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice
- Source :
- Developmental Science
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Adolescents aspire for independence. Successful independence means knowing when to rely on one's own knowledge and when to listen to others. A critical prerequisite thus is a well‐developed metacognitive ability to accurately assess the quality of one's own knowledge. Little is known about whether the strive to become an independent decision maker in adolescence is underpinned by the necessary metacognitive skills. Here, we demonstrate that metacognition matures from childhood to adolescence (N = 107) and that this process coincides with greater independent decision‐making. We show that adolescents, in contrast to children, take on others’ advice less often, but only when the advice is misleading. Finally, we demonstrate that adolescents’ reduced reliance on others’ advice is explained by their increased metacognitive skills, suggesting that a developing ability to introspect may support independent decision‐making in adolescence.<br />Moses‐Payne et al investigated how advice taking develops during childhood and adolescence, and how this is related to metacognition. Children, 8‐9 year olds (yo), and two groups of adolescents, 12‐13 year olds and 16‐17 year olds, took part in a metacognition and advice taking task. Both adolescent groups showed increased ability to identify when they were correct or incorrect (increased metacognitive efficiency, Panel A). The adolescent groups also showed a lower propensity to follow advice than children (Panel B). Importantly, adolescents were less likely to follow false advice but still followed helpful advice (Panel C). In this way, adolescents were more competent advice takers, and this was linked to their metacognitive abilities: resistance to false advice was driven by adolescents' increased metacognitive efficiency (Panel D). The adolescents utilized their new‐found metacognitive abilities to resist false advice from others when they knew they were correct, but still took helpful advice when they knew they were incorrect.
- Subjects :
- Paper
Adolescent
Cognitive Neuroscience
media_common.quotation_subject
Metacognition
decision making
050105 experimental psychology
Developmental psychology
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
advice
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Quality (business)
Child
development
media_common
introspection
4. Education
05 social sciences
Decision maker
Knowledge
Papers
Introspection
Independence (mathematical logic)
adolescence
Psychology
Advice (complexity)
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
050104 developmental & child psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14677687 and 1363755X
- Volume :
- 24
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Developmental Science
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1dfaa16b54feda33d08b8cdf04c8607b