Causal Attribution Preferences and Prospective Self-Assessment: The Unknowns of the Middle Eastern Learner

Abstract

In the present field experiment, we examined the effects of a self-assessment exercise conducted in the middle of the semester on metacognitive awareness (i.e., the accuracy of self-assessment and its subjective confidence) and final test performance of college students of Middle Eastern descent. Effects were measured in the classroom against a business-as-usual control condition. It was hypothesized that if the exercise focuses students’ attention on internal causes (e.g., effort) in response to specific task demands, metacognitive awareness, metacognitive control, and, ultimately, final test performance would be enhanced. In poor performers, the exercise indeed improved the accuracy of self-assessment (as measured by grade estimates) and final performance. There was no evidence of the illusion of knowing phenomenon (i.e., the unrealistic belief that one knows or is able to perform a given task) among poor-performing students as their confidence in estimates remained low. Furthermore, the exercise did not change students’ causal attribution preferences, thereby suggesting that other dynamics are responsible for the effects of the self-assessment exercise.