“Self-Assessment of Knowledge: A Cognitive Learning or Affective Measure?”, Traci Sitzmann, Katherine Ely, Kenneth G. Brown, Kristina N. Bauer2010-06 (illusion-of-depth bias)⁠:

[eg. Copur-Gencturk & Thacker2020] We conducted a meta-analysis to clarify the construct validity of self-assessments of knowledge in education and workplace training. Self-assessment’s strongest correlations were with motivation and satisfaction, two affective evaluation outcomes.

The relationship between self-assessment and cognitive learning was:

moderate. Even under conditions that optimized the self-assessment-cognitive learning relationship (eg. when learners practiced self-assessing and received feedback on their self-assessments), the relationship was still weaker than the self-assessment-motivation relationship.

We also examined how researchers interpreted self-assessed knowledge, and discovered that:

nearly a third of evaluation studies interpreted self-assessed knowledge data as evidence of cognitive learning.

Based on these findings, we offer recommendations for evaluation practice that involve a more limited role for self-assessment.