Preschool children and Forgetfulness

by Prof Dr. Bilal Semih Bozdemir

Preschool children and Forgetfulness In particular, one of the most discussed issues recently is how much we could trust statements made by children exposed to sexual abuse and how much could the deposition or the facts they described in the justice courts reflects the reality. Research studies carried out until now showed that facts explained by children were fantasies instead of truth (confabulation), and that we could have children saying exactly what we want them to answer about our questions. Schacter, explained the reason for this as follows: Findings showed that preschool children had some problems about their source memory. These problems are closely related to memory distortions. Studies on brain development, especially front-brain (frontal lobe) showed that it develops slowly. It is not fully developed until adolescence, and the development of this regions of the brain is certainly uncomplete in the preschool child and therefore this region immature in those kids (Schacter, 1996, pp. 124-129).


METACOGNITIONS "During a trial performance a group of children from pre-school and primary school was given a certain amount of material. They were asked to work on it until they are sure that they have memorized it. Elder children said they were ready after working for a while. Indeed when they were asked during a test they remembered everything correctly. In contrast, the children at a younger age, even though they said they were ready, could not remember some agents they were asked about. The trail described above with movements, can considered that pre-school children couldn’t be evaluated consistently and correctly on the implications of their current memory capacity. Metacognition is a good example of the issues evaluation and observance of people's current memory capacity tracking. Metacognition has become a very popular topic in the subject of nature and development, in recent years. "(Flavell, 1985, p. 103-104)

The concept of metacognition was first used by Flavell. Flavell defined the concept of metacognition as “a knowledge and information about cognitive phenomena", "people's knowledge of their own cognitive processes and the usage of this information to control cognitive processes" (Flavell, 1985, p. 104). Later on in the following definitions its active control over the cognitive processes have been included. Here are some of the various definitions of metacognitions "Very basic cognitive level, it basically means being aware of one’s own thinking." (Doğanay and Kara, 1995, p. 27) "This word is used to call the fact of being aware of one’s own learning and cognitive processes in order to improve people's learning and memory capacities." (Drmrod, 1990, p. 292) "The concept of metacognition is used to describe thinking about thoughts and means the fact that people pull back their learning strategies and review the operations of their own mind." (Healy, 1997, p. 247) If we look at the commonalities of the above definition of metacognition - Thinking about thoughts, - Knowing what we know and not know or being unaware of what we don’t - It seems to express the awareness of different aspects of thinking. Metacognition Features 1- It is the fact that people are aware of their own learning, their memory, which kind of learning tasks they can perform and what is completed in a realistic way. 2- The ability of knowing which method of learning effective and knowing which ones are ineffective. 3- Being able to plan an approach that is likely helpful in accomplishing successfully a learning task.

4- Making use of effective learning strategies. 5. People learn to be able to monitor the current situation, knowing that the information is successfully learnt or not. 6- Being aware of effective methods in order to recall information stored earlier. (Drmrod, 1990, p. 292) Here are the other concepts which are also associated with the concept of metacognitions: Metamemory: "knowledge about memory and processes", "people’s knowledge about and awareness of memory and processes (but not limited to) including the knowledge about the different memory systems." Monitoring: "People able to monitor the status of current knowledge and information process", "people's judgments about current knowledge and information processes". Regulation: “an individual’s ability of reorganizing to cope with changing environmental condition about his own thought processes ". The reason why the concept of metacognition is used is simply because of the "cognition about cognition" main meaning of that concept. Metacognitive skills, plays an important role in many cognitive activities. Some of these cognitive activities are mentioned below - Knowledge’s verbal communication - Verbal persuasion - Verbal comprehension - Reading - Writing - Language acquisition - Perception - Caution - Memory - Problem solving - Social cognition The concept of metacognition has entered into the following areas: - Cognitive Psychology - Artificial intelligence - Human Skills - Social Learning Theory - Cognitive Behavioral Modification - Personality Development - Gerontology - Education - Cognitive Development (Flavell, 1985, p. 104) Piaget and metacognition If we should use the concept of metacognition as in Piaget’s opinion, it is the last cognitive development stage, which is in its final development phase called the "formal operational stage" which bears the features of the concept of metacognition.

Here are the features of the abstract operational period: people who are going through that stage have the ability to use test assumptions, are abstract thinkers, and can make generalizations to pass from one situation or status to another using abstract concepts. Children can better understand each other gradually. They may think according to the viewpoint of others. In many ways it provides a new thinking flexibility in adolescents’ thinking. It can help solve many problems (Yavuzer, 1999, pp. 282-283). Another aspect to be taken into account for metacognitions is also closely related to the Piaget theory. Thinking includes aspects of performing operations on those the process. It includes the first rule of cognitive success and the acquisition of knowledge about the real world. Of course, all of those gains will take a lifetime to take place. In a point of mental development (according to Piaget this is puberty), it becomes possible to develop guidelines that include the rules. In other words, they perform mental operations on operations as well as to perform operations on adolescents’ elements. Elkind (1974) argues that the concept of metacognition is causing the increase of development of introspection in a significant proportion of adolescents. Adolescents, whether cognitive or emotional, are considered to have a strong tendency for research on the very depth of their internal situations (Öngen, 1993, p. 294).

Various theorists classified the subject of metacognition in different ways. According to Flavell, key concepts about metacognition are knowledge and the life experiences: 1. metacognitive knowledge 2. Metacognitive experiences 1. Metacognitive Knowledge Metacognitive knowledge refers to our acquired knowledge about the cognitive issues. Metacognitive knowledge and ideas are acquired with the life experiences and we store them in the long-term memory. This information consists of information on mental and functions. From this information some are (stored in long term memory) and some are more procedural = knowing how rather than declarative= knowing that. For example knowing the fact that "I have a fairly weak memory" is a declarative information. Other metacognitive information, rather than expressive, are operational. For example, "shopping list or using things that will help us remember, when our poor memory and know how we can help" is a functional information. Metacognitive knowledge can be divided roughly into three: 1. Information about individuals, 2. Information about the tasks (things), 3. Information on strategies. 1. Information on People: Our metacognitive knowledge about people includes data we obtain and ideas about human cognitive processors (processors) and ideas about what they look like (beliefs). Metacognitive knowledge of our people can be divided into three subgroups. a) Cognitive awareness of one's own (within-people): For example, you may be better in psychology courses than in or you might think that you learn better by reading instead of listening to your friend. b) Cognitive awareness among people (between-people): For example, you may think that your parents are more sensitive to your feelings and needs than the people around you or your neighbors c) The awareness of people's cognitive similarity (all-people): refers to the universal properties of the human mind, it is the most interesting of the three groups. 2. Information about tasks (things), our knowledge of the tasks can be divided into two sub-groups: a) Any task that we face when dealing with the nature of knowledge: for example, we know from experience that, for us to understand an information that is quite new, it is both difficult to remember, but it also takes a lot of time. b) The requirements of the task: Even when we have been given the same information to be working on, we all know that some tasks are much more difficult and require much efforts.

For example, we know that it is easier to remember the main lines of a story, than to recall the story word for word. Again, we know that it is easier to recognize (recognition) something, than to remember (recall) it. Therefore, multiple-choice exams, are usually easier than written exams. 3. Information on Strategies: For example, is someone asked us what we can do if asked to memorize a phone number, without hesitation we would answer that “we are going to repeat that number a certain amount of time" (rehearsal). This metacognitive knowledge is our knowledge of memory strategies. Let’s just ask ourselves the following question: what kind of differences are there between cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies? The main function of cognitive strategies is to help to conclude successfully any cognitive enterprise. In contrast, the main function of metacognitive strategy is to provide information about our enterprise and cognitive functioning. 2. Metacognitive Experiences: A metacognitive experience is a cognitive process associated with cognitive or emotional life. Metacognitive experiences can be simple or complex, short or long. Metacognitive activities of our cognitive life is quite useful when executing functions. For example, when you don’t understand a part of a text you are reading, you can read right back again or simply return on that part or reconsider what you know so far. Metacognitive experiences can be configured by metacognitive knowledge gained before. In contrast, metacognitive experiences may contribute to our metacognitive information (contacts, tasks and strategies) (Flavell, 1985, pp. 104-107).

Paris and Winograd stated that there are two main aspects of metacognition: 1. Knowledge and self-control 2. Knowledge and control of process. 1. Knowledge and self-control: Knowledge and self-control includes attention, attitude and commitment. a. Commitment: Intuitively the majority of teachers think that if their students commit themselves to an academic subject it will be a major determinant of their success. However, it a volitional behaviour and not something that cannot grasp anything arising from a specific events a person committed himself to achieve. The fact that people are likely to be able to commit themselves to something lies on their own preferences. b. Attitudes: Attitudes that someone develops towards a subject are not closely related to himself. On the learning of a certain topic, the value of the subject, the ability to achieve and to the extent the value of the effort approaches this subject with an attitude. If the learner does not develop an effective learning environment, his learning attitude will be affected negatively. As a result, an important aspect of knowledge and self-control is to be aware of the attitudes generated against a particular issue and to ensure the development of this attitude that helps learning (successful students always attribute their success to their own efforts). c. Attention: As well as in commitment, attention is generally considered as reactions to a stimulus. If some things are interesting for a student, he/she will take care of them in his/her pre-school education time, but will show less interest if there is nothing interesting. However, attention may also be audited by the students themselves. So the learner, may not even show his interest in uninteresting situations. Self-knowledge and the third dimension of information control is to adjust the level of attention and create attention when required. 2. Knowledge and control of process: Knowledge and control of process include two different parts: a- Types of information: Information can be expressive (declarative), operational (procedural) and contingent (conditional). Expressive information is factual and includes knowing the concept of a given task. Procedural data refers to information about how we apply metacognitive strategies. The conditional information means to be aware of whether a strategy is more appropriate and prefer using that one instead of another strategy to perform a desired task. And a teacher who teaches and specifies and determines them to students is helping them to consolidate their control over the metacognitive process. b. Behaviour Control: It consists of behaviour control, evaluation planning and organizing.

Rating: It includes deciding about the current state of development of a cognitive process and it involves mental perception. Did I fully understand what I’ve just read? Do I understand that writing on this map? And so on. Rating occurs throughout a process and is also the start and the end point of a subject. Rating includes likewise, the achievement of general objectives and detailed objectives and includes evaluation of whether the appropriate resources are available or not. Planning: It provides the ability to select carefully the strategy for achieving the specific purpose. In general, students should know about the process of putting a subject in a certain order and be able to select the most appropriate action at any given point. Edit: It includes the changes in the pre-school behaviours if necessary and also the control of the development of general and sub-objectives for the public. It means to attach importance to the control of thinking in the classroom, and that students should take responsibility in class, school and pre-checking issues for their success in education. Thus the concept of teachers who discipline people, appeared substantially and clearly. To provide better academic development of the students, they should develop their self-controls and learn to keep live. (Doğanay and Black, 1995, p. 27-29).