Metacognitive Judgments in Searching as Learning (SAL) Tasks: Insights on (Mis-) Calibration, Multimedia Usage, and Confidence

Metacognitive self-assessments of one's learning performance (calibration) are important elements of Searching as Learning (SAL) tasks. In this SAL study, N = 115 participants were asked to learn for up to 30 minutes about the formation of thunderstorms and lightning by using any suitable internet resources (including multimedia resources). Participants rated their performance in comparison to other participants (placement), estimated the percentage of correct answers (estimation), and indicated their confidence in the correctness of their answers (confidence) in a multiple-choice knowledge test that was filled in one week before (T1) and directly after (T2) the learning phase. Participants furthermore rated the 'familiarity' of terms that do or do not exist in the context of meteorology (overclaiming). Learners tended to underestimate their performance at T1 and there were indicators of a potential Dunning-Kruger effect. Overall, placement and estimation ratings tended to be more accurate at T2. Surprisingly, confidence ratings increased approximately equally for correct as well as incorrect answers. A propensity for overclaiming was positively correlated with most confidence measures and the amount of time learners spent on YouTube was correlated to lower confidence scores. Implications for the design of SAL tasks and SAL studies are discussed.