The way we learn this knowledge that dominates all other knowledge

Although much is known about how children use memory strategies, far fewer studies have examined how knowledge of those strategies improves during childhood or which variables are involved in this development. In this experiment, a scale designed to assess three main aspects of metamemory knowledge (internal strategy knowledge, external strategy knowledge, general knowledge) and a battery of executive tasks was administered to a group of 80 children aged 4, 6, and 11. At the same time, variables such as intelligence, vocabulary and parental education level were also taken into account.
Stepwise analyses carried out on each of the three metamemory subscales showed that executive functions of inhibition and response monitoring, as well as verbal fluency, were single predictors of internal strategy knowledge for children aged 6 and 11. Only verbal fluency predicted external strategy knowledge. None of the variables included in the analyses could explain the children’s general knowledge of memory functioning or the 4-year-old group’s performance on any of the three subscales.
Results are discussed in terms of ease of monitoring, access to explicit knowledge and influence of implicit learning.