A conceptual framework of a process by which persons assess and express levels of sureness in the correctness of responses which they anticipate making--or having already made but not yet received knowledge of results--is proposed. It is hypothesized that the rate at which a person's behavior is modified by knowledge of results is affected by the covert and overt sureness associated with the execution of responses which are being learned. Data are presented which show that acquisition in a paired-associates learning task may be enhanced by the concomitant performance of a self-assessment (SA) task. Acquisition is more rapid and the self-assessments regarding levels of sureness are more accurate if the response to-be-learned is executed before the SA response rather than after it. Learning involved a decrease in the proportion of unsure-wrong responses and an increase in the sure-correct responses, with little change in the proportion of sure-wrong and unsure-correct responses. Based upon an analysis of the relation between the sureness/correctness of the responses and the speed with which responses are executed, it is suggested that the process and/or factors involved in determining the correctness of a response may be different from those involved in determining its sureness. (Author)