Empirical analysis of the intrinsic–extrinsic distinction of judgments of learning (JOLs): Effects of relatedness and serial position on JOLs.

A. Koriat's (1997) cue-utilization framework provided a significant advance in understanding how people make judgments of learning (JOLs). A major distinction is made between intrinsic and extrinsic cues. JOLs are predicted to be sensitive to intrinsic cues (e.g., item relatedness) and less sensitive to extrinsic cues (e.g., serial position) because JOLs are comparative across items in a list. The authors evaluated predictions by having people make JOLs after studying either related (poker flush) or unrelated (dog-spoon) items. Although some outcomes confirmed these predictions, others could not be readily explained by the framework. Namely, relatedness influenced JOLs even when manipulated between participants, primacy effects were evident on JOLs, and the order in which blocks of items were presented (either all related items first or all unrelated items first) influenced JOLs. The authors discuss the framework in relation to these and other outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Revised Methodology for Research on Metamemory: Pre-judgment Recall And Monitoring (PRAM).

A revised methodology is described for research on metacognitive monitoring, especially judgments of learning (JOLs), to investigate psychological processing that previously has been only hypothetical and unobservable. During data collection a new stage of recall occurs just prior to the JOL, so that during data analysis the items can be partitioned into subcategories to measure the degree of JOL accuracy in ways that are more analytic than was previously possible. A weighted-average combinatorial rule allows the component measures of JOL accuracy to be combined into the usual overall measure of metacognitive accuracy. An example using the revised methodology offers a new explanation for the delayed-JOL effect, in which delayed JOLs are more accurate than immediate JOLs for predicting recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agenda-based regulation of study-time allocation: When agendas override item-based monitoring.

Theories of self-regulated study assume that learners monitor item difficulty when making decisions about which items to select for study. To complement such theories, the authors propose an agenda-based regulation (ABR) model in which learners’ study decisions are guided by an agenda that learners develop to prioritize items for study, given their goals and task constraints. Across 4 experiments, the authors orthogonally manipulated 1 task constraint—the reward structure of the task—with objective item difficulty, so that learners could use either item difficulty or potential reward in deciding how to allocate their study time. Learners studied items, were tested, and then selected half the items for restudy. As predicted by the ABR model, reward structure drove item selection more than did item difficulty, which demonstrates learners’ agendas can override the effects of monitoring item difficulty in the allocation of study time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related equivalence and deficit in knowledge updating of cue effectiveness.

Knowledge updating involves learning about cue effectiveness based on task experience. Prior research has yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding age and knowledge updating. To resolve this inconsistency, the authors analyzed the effects of aging within a single paradigm. Participants studied cue-target associates during 2 study-test trials. Cues included rhyme cues and highly effective category cues. On each study-test trial, different items were presented, and participants predicted recall performance, received a cued recall test, and postdicted performance. Knowledge updating was operationalized as an improvement in the accuracy of predictive judgments across trials. An age deficit was evident in improvements in absolute accuracy, whereas age equivalence was evident in relative accuracy. Evidence suggested that deficient inferential processes contributed to the age deficit in knowledge updating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does differential strategy use account for age-related deficits in working-memory performance?

The strategy-deficit hypothesis states that age differences in the use of effective strategies contribute to age-related deficits in working memory span performance. To evaluate this hypothesis, strategy use was measured with set-by-set strategy reports during the Reading Span task (Experiments 1 and 2) and the Operation Span task (Experiment 2). Individual differences in the reported use of effective strategies accounted for substantial variance in span performance. In contrast to the strategy-deficit hypothesis, however, young and older adults reported using the same proportion of normatively effective strategies on both span tasks. Measures of processing speed accounted for a substantial proportion of the age-related variance in span performance. Thus, although use of normatively effective strategies accounts for individual differences in span performance, age differences in effective strategy use cannot explain the age-related variance in that performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a general model of self-regulated study: An analysis of selection of items for study and self-paced study time.

People of all ages are more likely to choose to restudy items (or allocate more study time to items) that are perceived as more difficult to learn than as less difficult to learn. Existing models of self-regulated study adequately account for this inverse relation between perceived difficulty of learning and these 2 measures of self-regulated study (item selection and self-paced study). However, these models cannot account for positive relations between perceived difficulty of learning and item selection, which are demonstrated in the present investigation. Namely, in Experiments 1 and 2, the authors described conditions in which people more often selected to study items judged as less difficult than as more difficult to learn. This positive relation was not demonstrated for self-paced study, which was always negatively correlated with judged difficulty to learn. In Experiments 3 through 6, the authors explored explanations for this dissociation between item selection and self-paced study. Discussion focuses on a general model of self-regulated study that includes planning, discrepancy reduction, and working-memory constraints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and deficits in associative memory: what is the role of strategy production?

A new method was developed to investigate the degree to which age differences in strategy production mediate age differences in paired-associate recall. Participants were instructed to use imagery or any strategy and were to report the strategy produced for each item. Age similarities in reported strategy production were found for related (Experiment 1) and unrelated (Experiment 2) word pairs: Both age groups (a) reported using effective mediators (imagery and sentence generation) more often than using no mediators and (b) complied with instructions to use imagery. Although individual differences in strategy production were related to differences in recall performance, differential strategy production accounted for little of the age differences evident in associative memory.     

Does aging influence people's metacomprehension? Effects of processing ease on judgments of text learning.

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether age-related differences exist in metacomprehension by evaluating predictions based on the ease-of-processing (EOP) hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, judgments of how well a text has been learned are based on how easily each text was processed; easier processing results in higher judgments. Participants read either sentence pairs or longer texts and judged their learning of each immediately afterward. Although an age-related difference in the use of processing ease in judgments was observed with sentence pairs, for longer texts older and younger adults' judgments were similarly related to processing ease. In both experiments, age equivalence was also evident in the accuracy of the judgments at predicting performance on the criterion test. The overall pattern of results suggests that judging text learning remains largely intact with aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in absolute but not relative metamemory accuracy.

In 3 experiments, the effects of age on different kinds of metacognitive prediction accuracy were assessed. Participants made global memory predictions and item-by-item memory predictions in a single experimental task. Metacognitive accuracy was evaluated with correlational and more traditional difference-score measures. Difference-score measures were found, in some cases, to be sensitive to level of recall performance. Correlational techniques revealed that older adults monitored learning effectively. Relative to younger adults, they showed equally accurate immediate judgments of learning (JOLs), produced an equivalent delayed-JOL effect, and showed equivalent upgrading in the accuracy of their global prediction from before to after study of test materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding the Delayed-Keyword Effect on Metacomprehension Accuracy.

The typical finding from research on metacomprehension is that accuracy is quite low. However, recent studies have shown robust accuracy improvements when judgments follow certain generation tasks (summarizing or keyword listing) but only when these tasks are performed at a delay rather than immediately after reading (K. W. Thiede & M. C. M. Anderson, 2003; K. W. Thiede, M. C. M. Anderson, & D. Therriault, 2003). The delayed and immediate conditions in these studies confounded the delay between reading and generation tasks with other task lags, including the lag between multiple generation tasks and the lag between generation tasks and judgments. The first 2 experiments disentangle these confounded manipulations and provide clear evidence that the delay between reading and keyword generation is the only lag critical to improving metacomprehension accuracy. The 3rd and 4th experiments show that not all delayed tasks produce improvements and suggest that delayed generative tasks provide necessary diagnostic cues about comprehension for improving metacomprehension accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)