ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors attempt to give some idea of the kinds of issues that developmental psychologists are concerned with when they speak of metacognitive aspects of performance and how these might be related to reading. They focus on ideas for future research rather than on a description of work already completed. One major justification for studying metacognitive skills is that they do appear to have "ecological validity"; that is, there are recognizable counterparts in "real-world, everyday life" situations. Metacognitive deficiencies are the problem of the novice, regardless of age. Metacognition refers to the deliberate conscious control of one's own cognitive actions. The skills of metacognition are those attributed to the executive in many theories of human memory and machine intelligence, predicting, checking, monitoring, reality testing, and coordination and control of deliberate attempts to study, learn, or solve problems.
