The mediating role of metacognition in the relationship between executive function and self‐regulated learning

Background Researchers have demonstrated significant relations among executive function, metacognition, and self‐regulated learning. However, prior research emphasized the use of indirect measures of executive function and did not evaluate how specific executive functions are related to participants’ self‐regulated learning. Aims The primary goals of the current study were to examine and test the relations among executive function, metacognition, and self‐regulated learning as well as to examine how self‐regulated learning is informed by executive function. Sample The sample comprised 117 undergraduate students attending a large, Mid‐Atlantic research university in the United States. Methods Participants were individually administered direct and indirect measures of executive function, metacognition, and self‐regulated learning. A mediation model specifying the relations among the regulatory constructs was proposed. Results In multiple linear regression analyses, executive function predicted metacognition and self‐regulated learning. Direct measures of inhibition and shifting accounted for a significant amount of the variance in metacognition and self‐regulated learning beyond an indirect measure of executive functioning. Separate mediation analyses indicated that metacognition mediated the relationship between executive functioning and self‐regulated learning as well as between specific executive functions and self‐regulated learning. Conclusions The findings of this study are supported by previous research documenting the relations between executive function and self‐regulated learning, and extend prior research by examining the manner in which executive function and self‐regulated learning are linked. The findings provide initial support for executive functions as key processes, mediated by metacognition, that predict self‐regulated learning. Implications for the contribution of executive functions to self‐regulated learning are discussed.