Metacognitive components as predictors of preschool children’s performance in problem-solving tasks

The aim of the study was to examine the relation between metacognitive components, declarative and procedural metacognitive knowledge and cognitive regulation, and preschool children's performance in different problem solving tasks - hidden pictures, classifying and sorting, the same and the different, estimation, patterns, dot-to-dot, mazes and memory tasks. The sample consisted of 347 preschool children aged 3-6. The results showed that children with highly developed metacognitive abilities, declarative and procedural metacognitive knowledge, cognitive monitoring and self-regulation of cognitive strategies, were more successful and efficient in resolving problem tasks. This relation was stronger in older children and in more complex tasks.