Multimodal Protocol for Assessing Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Adults with Learning Difficulties

Summary

The current work proposes a multimodal evaluation protocol focused on metacognitive, self-regulation of learning, and emotional processes, which make up the basis of the difficulties in adults with LDs.

Abstract

Learning disabilities (LDs) encompass disorders of those who have difficulty learning and using academic skills, exhibiting performance below expectations for their chronological age in the areas of reading, writing, and/or mathematics. Each of the disorders making up the LDs involve different deficits; however, some commonalities can be found within that heterogeneity, such in terms of learning self-regulation and metacognition. Unlike in early ages and later educational levels, there are hardly any evidence-based evaluation protocols for adults with LDs. LDs influence academic performance but also have serious consequences in professional, social, and family contexts. In response to this, the current work proposes a multimodal evaluation protocol focused on metacognitive, self-regulation of learning, and emotional processes, which make up the basis of the difficulties in adults with LDs. The assessment is carried out through analysis of the on-line learning process using a variety methods, techniques, and sensors (e.g., eye tracking, facial expressions of emotion, physiological responses, concurrent verbalizations, log files, screen recordings of human-machine interactions) and off-line methods (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, and self-report measures). This theoretically-driven and empirically-based guideline aims to provide an accurate assessment of LDs in adulthood in order to design effective prevention and intervention proposals.

Introduction

Specific learning disorders (SLDs) encompass disorders of those who have difficulty learning and using academic skills, exhibiting performance below expectations for their chronological age in the areas of reading, writing, and/or mathematics^1,2. There are different estimations of prevalence rates depending on the age, language and culture analyzed but they are between 5% and 15%^1,3. Within the global category of neurodevelopmental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5^th Ed.)¹, it i....

Protocol

The research ethics committee of the Principality of Asturias and the University of Oviedo approved this protocol.

1. Session 1: diagnosis assessment

NOTE: In this session of the protocol, evaluation tests from different publishers are used, which have their own specific application and interpretation manuals. Since these tests, or other similar ones, are widely known by the scientific community in the field of psychology and education, the procedure to apply them is not detailed step by step (for example, given the aim of this paper, it does not make sense to detail each step of the WAIS-IV³⁵

Results

This section illustrates the representative results obtained from the protocol, including an example of conjoint results of Session 1 and an example of each source of information from Session 2.

The results about disorders are collected in Session 1 through diagnostic tests taking into account the procedures and cut-off points specified for the diagnostic assessment of participants’ learning difficulties (SLD, ADHD, and ASD). The expert committee decides whether the participant has learning di.......

Discussion

The current protocol proposes a multimodal evaluation focused on metacognitive, self-regulation, and emotional processes, which make up the basis of the difficulties in adults with LDs.

Session 1 is essential because it is intended to be a diagnostic assessment of the participant’s learning disabilities. Note that this session here is carried out by therapists with experience in diagnosing developmental and learning difficulties in the research and clinical context. We use these tools in.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
AQUARIUM	Nesplora
Eye-tracker RED500 Systems	SensoMotoric Instruments GmbH
Face API	Microsoft
GSR NUL-217	NeuLog