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Biomedical subjects

Christopher Hertzog

Publications and source records attributed to Christopher Hertzog.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Encoding fluency is a cue used for judgments about learning.

The authors used paired-associate learning to investigate the hypothesis that the speed of generating an interactive image (encoding fluency) influenced 2 metacognitive judgments: judgments of learning (JOLs) and quality of encoding ratings (QUEs). Results from Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that latency of a keypress indicating successful image formation was negatively related to both JOLs and QUEs even though latency was unrelated to recall. Experiment 3 demonstrated that when concrete and abstract items were mixed in a single list, latency was related to concreteness, judgments, and recall. However, item concreteness and fluency influenced judgments independently of one another. These outcomes suggest an important role of encoding fluency in the formation of metacognitive judgments about learning and future recall.

Cognition↗

Training monitoring skills improves older adults' self-paced associative learning.

We investigated a memory-enhancement program that involved teaching older adults to regulate study through self-testing. A regulation group was taught standard strategies along with self-testing techniques for identifying less well-learned items that could benefit from extra study. This group was compared with a strategy-control group, which was taught only strategies, and with a waiting-list control group. Greater training gains were shown for the regulation group (effect size, d = 0.72) than for the strategy-control (d = 0.28) and waiting-list control (d = 0.03) groups, indicating that training a monitoring skill--self-testing--can improve older adults' learning.

Age Factors↗

Stability and change in adult personality over 6 years: findings from the Victoria Longitudinal Study.

Data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study were used to examine the 6-year longitudinal stability of personality in older adults. Personality was measured with the NEO Personality Inventory. The longitudinal sample consisted of 223 adults initially ranging from 55 to 85 years of age. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the stability of individual differences in change over time, and the stability of the longitudinal factor structure. The results indicated both substantial stability at the level of individual differences in change, as well as significant individual differences in change that were related to age and gender. Finally, the factor structure of personality was invariant over time but did not approximate simple structure for the five dimensions of personality. Our study of 6-year personality development provided both (a). a confirmation of early significant stability findings and (b). unique evidence for significant individual differences in late adulthood.

Aged↗

Aging and monitoring associative learning: is monitoring accuracy spared or impaired?

Mixed lists of associatively related and unrelated paired associates were used to study monitoring of associative learning. Older and younger adults produced above-chance levels of relative accuracy, as measured by intraindividual correlations (gamma) of judgments of learning (JOLs) with item recall. JOLs were strongly influenced by relatedness, and this effect was greater for older adults. Relative accuracy was higher for unrelated than for related pairs. Correlations of JOLs with item recall for a randomly yoked learner indicated that access to one's own encoding experiences increased relative accuracy. Both age groups manifested a contrast effect (lower JOLs for unrelated items when mixed with related items). Aging appears to spare monitoring of encoding, even though it adversely affects associative learning.

Adult↗

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

Knowledge updating involves learning about cue effectiveness based on task experience. Priorresearch 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.

Adolescent↗

The effects of age-stereotype priming on the memory performance of older adults.

The effects of age-stereotype priming on the memory performance of older adults were investigated through a conceptual replication and extension of Levy's (1996. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1092-1107) study. Sixty young and 60 older adults were subliminally primed with a positive age stereotype, a negative age stereotype, or neutral primes. Memory performance on two tasks (a photo recall task and a dot location task) was measured before and after the priming intervention. Although the study does not provide unequivocal support for Levy's (1996) findings, results did show that priming a negative age stereotype undermined memory performance for a small sample of older adults who were "unaware" of the primes. However, contrary to Levy's findings, priming a positive age stereotype did not increase older adults' memory performance. There were no significant effects of priming positive or negative age stereotypes on the memory performance of young adults.

Adolescent↗