Accurately monitoring one’s learning processes during self-regulated learning depends on using the right cues, one of which could be perceived mental effort. A meta-analysis by Baars et al. (2020) found a negative association between mental effort and monitoring judgments (r = -.35), suggesting that the amount of mental effort experienced during a learning task is usually negatively correlated with learners’ perception of learning. However, it is unclear how monitoring judgments and perceptions of mental effort relate to learning outcomes. To examine if perceived mental effort is a diagnostic cue for learning outcomes, and whether monitoring judgments mediate this relationship, we employed a meta-analytic structural equation model. Results indicated a negative, moderate association between perceived mental effort and monitoring judgments (β = -.19), a positive, large association between monitoring judgments and learning outcomes (β = .29), and a negative, moderate indirect association between perceived mental effort and learning outcomes (β = -.05), which was mediated by monitoring judgments. Our subgroup analysis did not reveal any significant differences across moderators potentially due to the limited number of studies included per moderator category. Findings suggest that when learners perceive higher levels of mental effort, they exhibit lower learning (confidence) judgments, which relates to lower actual learning outcomes. Thus, learners seem to use perceived mental effort as a cue to judge their learning while perceived mental effort only indirectly relates to actual learning outcomes.

在自我调节学习过程中准确监控一个人的学习过程取决于使用正确的线索，其中之一可以是感知到的脑力劳动。 Baars 等人的荟萃分析。 （2020）发现脑力努力与监控判断之间存在负相关（r = -.35），这表明学习任务期间经历的脑力努力量通常与学习者对学习的感知负相关。然而，目前尚不清楚对脑力努力的监测判断和感知与学习成果有何关系。为了检查感知的脑力努力是否是学习结果的诊断线索，以及监控判断是否介导这种关系，我们采用了荟萃分析结构方程模型。结果表明，感知的脑力努力与监控判断之间存在中度负相关（β = -.19），监控判断与学习成果之间存在较大的正相关（β = .29），感知的脑力努力与监控判断之间存在负的、中度间接关联。努力和学习成果（β = -.05），这是通过监控判断来调节的。我们的亚组分析没有揭示主持人之间存在任何显着差异，这可能是由于每个主持人类别包含的研究数量有限。研究结果表明，当学习者感知到较高水平的脑力劳动时，他们表现出较低的学习（信心）判断，这与较低的实际学习成果有关。因此，学习者似乎使用感知的脑力努力作为判断他们学习的线索，而感知的脑力努力仅与实际的学习结果间接相关。