Modern education, at all levels, is shifting to active learning techniques. Active learning requires students to engage in meaningful learning activities and continuously monitor what they are doing. Research on active learning techniques in the classroom have yielded increased student learning outcomes above and beyond those achieved by the traditional lecture format. This enhancement has been proposed to arise from a number of mechanisms including metacognition. Metacognition is commonly described as "knowing about knowing": it is our awareness of and control over our cognitive processes. For individuals with ADHD, who have impaired executive functioning capabilities, breakdowns could occur in metacognitive processes, limiting their ability to accurately monitor what has been learned. The goal of the current study was to determine if the inclusion of guided metacognitive monitoring, in the form of judgments of learning (JOLs), influences participants’ control of study choices and thus long-term retention of learned material. Overall, there was a positive effect of prompted monitoring on accuracy where the inclusion of JOL ratings led to significant improvements in test performance. Results also provide support for an effect of individual differences in executive functioning on metacognitive monitoring and control and test performance. These results support the incorporation of JOLs as a promising avenue for modifications to active learning techniques that may be advantageous for those with deficits in executive functioning.
