Abstract
Contemporary models of proficient self-regulated cognition include monitoring of performance as an important component. Monitoring is an executive process, activating and deactivating other processes, as a function of on-line evaluation (of thought processes and products as they occur. This article reviews our recent research on monitoring during text processing. Our most dramatic finding was that monitoring, even by skilled adults, is often far from optimal, leading to the conclusion that efficient self-regulated study occurs much less frequently than previously suggested by basic cognitive researchers.