Hands of confidence: Effects of gestures on metacognition across domains and ages

Metacognition, the process by which individuals monitor and regulate their epistemic knowledge states, plays a significant role in a multitude of daily activities, ranging from decision-making to problem-solving, learning, and academic success (for a review, see Koriat, 2020). Therefore, delving into the nuances of metacognitive confidence is imperative for refining cognitive functions and achieving favorable outcomes across diverse domains. In this dissertation, embarking on a novel exploration, I examine whether gestural cues, encompassing visuospatial and motoric cues (Kita et al., 2017), influence metacognitive confidence, with three distinct studies, each shedding light on this complex interaction in diverse cognitive aspects and populations. Chapter 2 focuses on discerning the impact of iconic gestures, employed as cognitive aids during learning, on memory performance and related metamemory judgments. In two studies involving Kanji-image pair learning tasks with various difficulties, I encouraged half of the participants to use gestures during learning, while the other half was not told about any strategy to use. All participants evaluated their confidence in performance prospectively and retrospectively. Results indicated that gesture use did not significantly enhance memory in the first experiment but did so in the second when the task difficulty increased. Remarkably, participants in the gesture group exhibited heightened metacognitive confidence, hinting at the metacognitive system's adeptness at assimilating visuospatial and motoric cues induced by gestures, particularly in challenging tasks. Chapter 3 explores the impact of gestures on spatial thinking and related metacognitive confidence during a mental rotation task. Results unveiled that gestures enhanced performance and confidence when needed. Specifically, gesture use enhanced females' performance and confidence, which had already performed worse than males, and the performance and confidence of all participants when the problems were difficult. Such results suggest that gestures selectively influence cognition and metacognition and highlight the importance of task- (i.e., difficulty) and individual-related variables (i.e., sex) in elucidating the links between gestures, confidence, and spatial thinking. Chapter 4 extends the dissertation's purview to preschool-aged children, aiming to elucidate the role of gestures in augmenting spatial mental rotation performance and metacognitive monitoring. Findings underscored a marked enhancement in performance associated with gesture use, even among four-year-old participants. Moreover, gestures contributed to heightened confidence levels, with their impact being scrutinized more accurately with advancing age. This investigation furnishes invaluable insights into the intricate interplay among gestures, cognition, and metacognition during the formative years of early childhood. Overall, this dissertation enriches our comprehension of metacognitive processes by spotlighting the influence of gestural cues in shaping metacognitive confidence across varied age cohorts and contextual settings. By uncovering these intricate relationships, the research offers valuable implications for educational practices and cognitive interventions to optimize cognitive outcomes.