[Development of cognitive strategies and self control strategies in 8 to 14-year-old children].

Abstract

This study examines the interaction between the development of cognitive strategies and self-monitoring abilities in children aged 8 to 14. Children were tested individually on eight proportionality problems presented with the balance-scale task. Cognitive development was assessed by the strategy used and the performance on each problem. The indicators of self-monitoring were: latencies before and after the solution of a problem, self-evaluation of one's ability to make the balance scale stay level, proportion of oriented moves on the balance scale, and persistence on a problem. Children's self-monitoring reactions to failure were assessed by changes in strategies, verbal explanations, self-evaluation of performance, and latencies. Results showed an interaction between the complexity of the items and cognitive level. On more complex items, children of lower cognitive levels had shorter latencies, made more (but less oriented) moves on the balance scale, persisted less in their activity, and had more difficulty to evaluate properly their performance. Following failure, children of lower cognitive levels did a less accurate evaluation of their performance, modified their strategy, and did not change their verbal justification, whereas children of higher cognitive levels did a good evaluation of their performance, did not change their strategy, and had the tendency to change their verbal justification. Following failure, all children took less time planning their activity. The results suggest that self-monitoring abilities develop according to the development of cognitive strategies and are mediated by the complexity of the task.