Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

CognitionCognition

Memory Strategies and Memory Strategies and Metacognition IIMetacognition II

Chapter 6Chapter 6

Topics & ThemesTopics & Themes

Memory Accuracy & ImprovementMemory Accuracy & Improvement

Spacing & Testing EffectsSpacing & Testing Effects

Mnemonic DevicesMnemonic Devices

MetacognitionMetacognition

MetamemoryMetamemory

Metacomprehension Metacomprehension

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

Memory Strategies

Link (Chain) System

Paper

Tire

Doctor

Rose

Ball

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

Memory StrategiesMemory Strategies

A Comprehensive Approach to Memory A Comprehensive Approach to Memory ImprovementImprovement

strategies too simplistic

Douglas Herrmann's multimodal approachphysical conditionpsychological well-beingrepertoire of several memory-improvement techniques

Langer—mindfulness rather than mindlessness

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

Memory StrategiesMemory Strategies

Improving Prospective MemoryImproving Prospective Memoryprospective memory—remembering what you need

to do in the future

remembering that you need to do something AND remembering the content of what you need to do

Comparing Prospective and Retrospective Memory

Retrospective Memory:

Remember content + ideas

Semantic & Episodic

Significant Research

Prospective Memory:

Remember content + action

Time- & Event-based

Involves planning + problem solving

High Ecological Validity

Distinctive encoding +

retrieval cues, ↑ accuracy.

↑ delay btw encoding

& retrieval, ↓ accuracy

Rely on frontal lobes

Visual imagery improves recall

External memory aid

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

Memory StrategiesMemory Strategies

Research on Prospective Memory• demanding tasks and divided attention can lead to

forgetting to complete an unrelated prospective-memory task

• switching tasks can lead to forgetting a prospective-memory task later on

• disrupting a customary schema, ↑ absentmindness• use encoding specificity for where you will be when

you will need to remember to complete the prospective-memory task

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

metacognition—your knowledge and control of your cognitive processes

supervises the way you select and use your memory strategies

metamemorymetacomprehension

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Metamemory and the Prediction of Metamemory and the Prediction of Memory PerformanceMemory Performance

If you are confident about your performance on some memory task, is your memory indeed accurate?

MetacognitionMetacognition

Total-Score Basispredict total number of correct responsesforesight bias—people overestimate the number of correct

answers they will provide on a future test

Why?studying with the correct responses visible

Dunning and coauthors (2003)estimate of total score after finishing examless competent students overestimated performance

Dunning et al. (2003)

Estimated Total Score vs. Actual Total Score

0

20

40

60

80

100

Bottom Second Third Top

Actual Performance Group

% C

orr

ect

Estimated Score

Actual Score

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Metamemory on an Item-by-Item BasisMetamemory can be highly accurate when we

consider people’s predictions about which individual items they’ll remember and which ones they'll forget (judgment of learning—JoL).

word-pairs vs. more complex material

delayed judgments more accurate

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Individual Differences: Metamemory and Individual Differences: Metamemory and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity DisorderDisorder

People with ADHD are even more likely than other people to overestimate their total score on memory tasks.

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Individual Differences: Metamemory and Individual Differences: Metamemory and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity DisorderDisorder

Knouse and coauthors (2006)• metamemory item-by-item• word pairs, estimate likelihood of recall, immediate vs. delayed

JoL, ADHD and non-ADHD• people with and without ADHD did not differ in the accuracy of

their immediate judgments; both groups reasonably accurate in predicting future recall

• no group difference after delay; both groups even more accurate in predicting future recall

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

Individual Differences: Individual Differences: Metamemory & ADHDMetamemory & ADHD

Figure 6.6a Accuracy of Predicting Which Items Will Be Correctly Recalled, When Making Judgments of Learning Immediately After Seeing a Pair

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

Individual Differences: Individual Differences: Metamemory & ADHDMetamemory & ADHD

Figure 6.6b Accuracy of Predicting Which Items Will Be Correctly Recalled, When Making Delayed Judgments

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Take-home message:Take-home message:

People with ADHD may overestimate their total scores on a memory test. However, they are highly accurate in estimating their performance on an item-by-item basis.

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Metamemory and the Regulation of Study Metamemory and the Regulation of Study StrategiesStrategies

coordinating memory and decision makingspending more time on difficult material

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Metamemory and the Regulation of Study Metamemory and the Regulation of Study StrategiesStrategies

Allocating Time When the Task is EasyNelson and Leonesio (1988)

• examine how students distribute their study time when they can study at their own pace

• students allocated more study time for the items that they believed would be difficult to master

• students spend longer than necessary studying items they already know, and not enough time studying the items they have not yet mastered

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Allocating Time When the Task is Easy (continued)

Son and Metcalfe (2000)—students spend more time on difficult items in studies examining relatively easy material like learning pairs of words

Do students adopt a different strategy in other circumstances? Difficult material?

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Allocating Time When the Task is Difficultconceptual informationlimited study timeSon and Metcalfe (2000)

• test material—a series of eight encyclopedia-style biographies

• time pressure—only 30 minutes to study• rank the biographies in terms of difficulty• students spent the majority of their study time on the

biographies they considered easy, rather than those they considered difficult

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Allocating Time When the Task is Difficult (continued)

Other studies—when facing time pressure, students choose to study material that seems relatively easy to master

Experts concentrate their time on more challenging material, compared to novices

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

MetacomprehensionMetacomprehensionmetacomprehension—our thoughts about comprehension

Metacomprehension Accuracy• college students are not very accurate in

metacomprehension skills--fail to spot inconsistencies or missing information in a passage

• believe they have understood something because they are familiar with its general topic

• fail to retain specific information• overestimate how they will perform when tested

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Metacomprehension AccuracyPressley and Ghatala (1988)

• reading comprehension using SAT; essay followed by multiple choice questions

• students rate how certain they were that they had answered each question correctly

• little difference between estimates on correct and incorrect items

• students believed that they understood the material even when they answered the questions incorrectly

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

Metacomprehension AccuracyMaki and coauthors (1994)

metacomprehension accuracy and reading comprehension scores significantly correlated

College students with low reading ability are overconfident when they estimate their scores on a difficult reading test; high-ability students tend to be underconfident

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6

MetacognitionMetacognition

MetacomprehensionMetacomprehensionImproving Metacomprehension

pretests with feedbackread and summarizereading strategies—make connections, use imagery,

outline and summarize in your own words