title: The relation between accuracy of self-perception and cognitive development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is now widely recognised that student's self-perceptions of competence have an effect on their behaviours and learning. Previous studies have shown that children only gradually develop the ability to evaluate accurately their own competence. One possible explanation for this is that younger children have not reached a level of cognitive development required to perform such evaluations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of these two studies was to examine the hypothesis that children at higher levels of cognitive development should be more accurate in their self-appraisal of competence than children of the same age at lower levels of cognitive development. STUDY 1.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included 173 elementary school children, with almost equal gender representation. Children were first examined in fourth grade (mean age = 10.0, SD = .77) and for the next two years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each child responded to questionnaires of self-perceptions about reading and to a standardised test of reading. Year-end grades in reading were used as a measure of performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that there was no significant difference between high and low children in grade 6, but that the correlation between self-perceptions and performance was significantly higher among high ability children than among low ability children both in grades 4 and 5. STUDY 2.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included 153 elementary school children in grade 3 (mean age = 9.1, SD = .73) and 185 in grade 5 (mean age = 11.2, SD = .75), with almost equal gender representation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each child responded to questionnaires of self-perceptions about mathematics and to a standardised IQ test. Year-end grades in mathematics were used as a measure of performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The correlation between self-perception and performance was significantly higher among high IQ children than among low IQ children in grade 3. However, in grade 5, high and low IQ children were similarly accurate in their self-perceptions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that the development of accurate self-perceptions is not strictly a matter of age or school level but is also related to cognitive development.
authors.affiliation: Départment de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada. bouffard.therese@uqam.ca
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bouffard
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Markovits
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vezeau
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boisvert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dumas
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires