Interactions of Metacognition With Motivation and Affect in Self-Regulated Learning: The MASRL Model

Abstract

Metacognition, motivation, and affect are components of self-regulated learning (SRL) that interact. The “metacognitive and affective model of self-regulated learning” (the MASRL model) distinguishes two levels of functioning in SRL, namely, the Person level and the Task × Person level. At the Person level interactions between trait-like characteristics such as cognitive ability, metacognitive knowledge and skills, self-concept, perceptions of control, attitudes, emotions, and motivation in the form of expectancy-value beliefs and achievement goal orientations are hypothesized. These person characteristics guide top-down self-regulation. At the Task × Person level, that is, the level at which SRL events take place, metacognitive experiences, such as feeling of difficulty, and online affective states play a major role in task motivation and bottom-up self-regulation. Reciprocal relations between the two levels of functioning in SRL are also posited. The implications of the MASRL model for research and theory are discussed.

Notes

¹Perceptions of control are beliefs the person has about him- or herself as an agent (Skinner, 1995). Perceptions of control comprise means-end beliefs, control beliefs, and agency beliefs.

²Task orientation is equivalent to mastery goal orientation, and ego orientation to performance goal orientation.

³I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer who pointed out that the term “interaction” can have a different meaning when it refers to the Person level than when it refers to the Task × Person level. Specifically, at the Person level interaction can be defined in a statistical sense such that the value of one variable in a group of people is conditional to the value of another variable. However, at the Task × Person level, where task processing takes place as a sequence of events, interaction may denote the temporal dynamics of processing within a single person.