Prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember to carry out future intentions, is a critical skill for children’s daily activities. Despite this, little is known about young children’s awareness of their PM ability (metamemory), how metamemory is affected by PM task difficulty, and how metacognitive abilities might be related to metamemory. The current study examined the effect of task difficulty on children’s PM predictions, actual performance, and postdictions and relations among episodic memory metamemory, metacognitive control, and executive functioning. Children aged 4 to 6 years (N = 131) made PM predictions, completed an easy or difficult PM task, and then made PM postdictions. Children also made predictions and postdictions for their performance on an episodic recall task and then completed an independent measure of metacognitive control and two measures of executive function (working memory and inhibition). Results showed that (a) children’s PM increased with age and was worse in the difficult PM task condition, (b) PM predictions and postdictions did not increase with age and only PM postdictions were affected by PM task difficulty; (c) children’s PM and episodic recall predictions and postdictions were more accurate with age, (d) children’s PM postdictions best predicted PM performance, whereas predictions best predicted episodic recall task performance, and (e) children with better metacognitive control had better PM and more accurate PM predictions. These results are discussed in terms of young children’s optimism surrounding their memory performance and the emergence of early metacognitive abilities.

前瞻记忆 (PM)，即记住执行未来意图的能力，是儿童日常活动的一项关键技能。尽管如此，关于幼儿对其 PM 能力（元记忆）的意识、元记忆如何受到 PM 任务难度的影响以及元认知能力如何与元记忆相关的知识知之甚少。目前的研究检查了任务难度对儿童 PM 预测、实际表现、情景记忆元记忆、元认知控制和执行功能之间的关系和关系的影响。4至6岁儿童（N = 131) 进行 PM 预测，完成简单或困难的 PM 任务，然后进行 PM 预测。儿童还对他们在情景回忆任务中的表现做出预测和预测，然后完成元认知控制的独立测量和执行功能的两项测量（工作记忆和抑制）。结果表明：（a）儿童的PM随年龄增长而增加，并且在PM任务困难的情况下更糟，（b）PM预测和预测不随年龄增加，只有PM预测受PM任务难度的影响；(c) 儿童的 PM 和情节回忆预测和后述随着年龄的增长更准确，(d) 儿童的 PM 后述最能预测 PM 表现，而预测最能预测情节回忆任务表现，(e) 具有更好元认知控制的儿童有更好的 PM 和更准确的 PM 预测。这些结果是根据幼儿对他们的记忆表现和早期元认知能力的出现的乐观态度来讨论的。