Feeling of knowing and over-claiming in students from secondary school to university

The feeling of knowing (FOK) is a component of meta-memory that helps people decide if they know or do not know a specific piece of information. By using over-claiming technique as a convenient method for measuring FOK, this study aims to analyse if it varies systematically across different academic levels. It is worth to analyse this issue because FOK may be influenced by the different curricular content learned in each course. Results show that FOK of compulsory secondary school students (aged 15-16, n = 506) is significantly lower than that of students of upper secondary education (aged 16 to 17, n = 469), which in turn, is also significantly lower than that of the undergraduates (aged 18 and more, n = 968). Also, the research has found that FOK is significantly different depending on the specialization of the students in university. Finally, over claiming technique is shown to be a new and simple way to evaluate FOK, a construct that can contribute to a better understanding of individual differences in academic learning.