The present study was designed to understand and optimize self-assessment accuracy in cognitive skill acquisition through example-based learning. We focused on the initial problem-solving phase, which follows after studying worked examples. At the end of this phase, it is important that learners are aware whether they have already understood the solution procedure. In Experiment 1, we tested whether self-assessment accuracy depended on whether learners were prompted to infer their self-assessments from explanation-based cues (ability to explain the problems’ solutions) or from performance-based cues (problem-solving performance) and on whether learners were informed about the to-be-monitored cue before or only after the problem-solving phase. We found that performance-based cues resulted in better self-assessment accuracy and that informing learners about the to-be-monitored cue before problem-solving enhanced self-assessment accuracy. In Experiment 2, we again tested whether self-assessment accuracy depended on whether learners were prompted to infer their self-assessments from explanation- or performance-based cues. We furthermore varied whether learners received instruction on criteria for interpreting the cues and whether learners were prompted to self-explain during problem-solving. When learners received no further instructional support, like in Experiment 1, performance-based cues yielded better self-assessment accuracy. Only when learners who were prompted to infer their self-assessments from explanation-based cues received both cue criteria instruction and prompts to engage in self-explaining during problem-solving did they show similar self-assessment accuracy as learners who utilized performance-based cues. Overall, we conclude that it is more efficient to prompt learners to monitor performance-based rather than explanation-based cues in the initial problem-solving phase.

本研究旨在通过基于实例的学习来理解和优化认知技能获取的自我评估准确性。我们专注于最初的问题解决阶段，这是在研究了工作示例之后进行的。在这个阶段结束时，重要的是学习者要意识到他们是否已经理解了解决方案的过程。在实验1中，我们测试了自我评估的准确性是否取决于学习者是否被提示从基于解释的线索（解释问题解决方案的能力）或基于表现的线索（解决问题的表现）来推断他们的自我评估，以及关于学习者是否在问题解决阶段之前或仅在问题解决阶段之后被告知要监控的线索。我们发现基于表现的线索可以提高自我评估的准确性，并且在解决问题之前告知学习者要监控的线索可以提高自我评估的准确性。在实验2中，我们再次测试了自我评估的准确性是否取决于学习者是否被提示从基于解释或基于表现的线索推断出他们的自我评估。此外，我们还改变了学习者是否接受了解释线索标准的指导，以及学习者在解决问题时是否被提示进行自我解释。当学习者没有得到进一步的教学支持时，如实验 1 所示，基于表现的提示会产生更好的自我评估准确性。只有当被提示从基于解释的线索推断自我评估的学习者同时收到线索标准指导和在解决问题期间进行自我解释的提示时，他们才会表现出与利用基于表现的线索的学习者相似的自我评估准确性。 总的来说，我们得出的结论是，在最初的问题解决阶段，促使学习者监控基于表现的线索而不是基于解释的线索更为有效。