Thirty-six children between four and seven years of age were asked a series of questions to determine their degree of insight (meta-cognitive awareness) regarding the way four common variables influence the ease with which a person can perform the three cognitive tasks of remembering, communicating, and attending. The four variables were the length of the task, noise interference, age of the person performing the task, and time allotted for the task. Analysis of the results indicated that the pattern of understanding was the same with regard to the different cognitive realms, that more children understood the effects of length and noise interference than those of age and time, and that children's levels of understanding increased with age. (Descriptions and examples of pictorial stimuli used in the study, and tables of results, are included.) (GW)