and interactions among four classes of phenomena: 1) metacognitive knowledge; 2) metacognitive experiences; 3) goals (or tasks); and 4) actions (or strategies). He defines metacognitive knowledge as that segment of an individual's stored world knowledge that has to do with people as cognitive creatures and with their diverse cognitive tasks, goals, actions, and experiences. Metacognitive experiences are any conscious cognitive or affective experiences accompanying and pertaining to any intellectual enterprise. Metacognitive knowledge, states Flavell, consists primarily of knowledge or beliefs about what factors or variables act and interact in what ways to affect the course and outcome of cognitive enterprises. the three major categories of these factors or variables are person, task, and strategy. Metacognitive memory is found not to be fundamentally different from other knowledge stored in long-term memory, and a segment of it may be activated as the result of a deliberate, conscious memory search for an effective strategy, for instance. The segment may also be activated unintentionally and automatically by retrieval cues in the task situation. Flavell concludes that metacognitive knowledge probably influences the course of the cognitive enterprise without itself entering consciousness. Also, it may become or give rise to a conscious experience. Like any body of knowledge, it can be inaccurate, can fail to be activated when needed, and can fail to have a beneficial or adaptive effect.
Flavell's analysis gives a general sense of the interaction of different metacognitive processes, just as Wellman's article suggests the origins of metacognition without testing the hypothesis fully. More empirical studies are found of specific metacognitive processes and applications, Gordon and Braun (1985) consider the role of metacognition in reading and writing. Both readers and writers, they state, share the common goal of making m...