‘HALT HYPOTHESIS’ IN METACOGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM COLLEGE STUDENTS

Gender difference in metacognition has been a controversial issue. Prior researches have shown inconsistent results regarding the differences in metacognitive skills of boys and girls. At the same time some researchers have also observed that until the age of 14, children's metacognitive skills have a substantial domain orientation and beyond the age of 14, metacognitive skills merge into a generalized repertoire across the domains following a period halt in the development, which they proposed as the ‘halt hypothesis'. The present research addresses both these issues of metacognitive development. Six hundred boys and girls reading in higher secondary to degree classes in age group of 15 to 20 years participated in the study. The Metacognitive Awareness Inventories were administered on them to measure their skills in metacognitive knowledge, regulation and executive control. Firstly, the results supported gender difference in the development of metacognitive skill but could not subscribe to any univocal nature of difference. It pointed out that girls are better in metacognitive knowledge while boys are better in metacognitive regulation and they are same in executive control. The results also strongly supported the halt hypothesis but with differences that the halt period may be longer and beyond 15 years of age and also varies with respect to different metacognitive skills.