Researching your own lecture: Effects of choice on performance and confidence

Based on research on learning in lectures and on self-determination theory, we investigated the effects of autonomy on cognitive test performance and meta-cognitive confidence as part of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project. During the semester, N = 370 university students completed both self-selected and designated written reflections and took tests with confidence-weighted true-false items on two measurement occasions. Items related to content from the self-selected tasks were solved equally well over time, while confidence in correct and incorrect solutions decreased. Performance related to content from the designated tasks increased over time, while confidence in incorrect solutions increased. This paper discusses the possible mechanisms and consequences of the results, as well as the limitations of our study and, thus, the possible implications.