Biomedical subjects

J Dunlosky

Publications and source records attributed to J Dunlosky.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

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.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Fluency of retrieval at study affects judgments of learning (JOLs): an analytic or nonanalytic basis for JOLs?

The fluency of retrieval during a test of memory has been implicated as a cue for judgments of learning (JOLs), but little is known about how fluency affects JOLs. In three experiments, we investigated (1) whether the fluency of generation during study may be a cue for JOLs and (2) whether such fluency effects are mediated by an analytic or nonanalytic inference. To accomplish our goals, we used a learner-observer-judge method. While studying paired associates, learners generated some targets at study. For these items, their JOLs were negatively correlated with the time taken to generate targets. Observers watched learners generate targets and then predicted learners' memory performance. Judges also made JOLs but did not watch the learners generate targets. JOLs from all groups were negatively related to learners' latencies to generate targets, with the magnitude of the relationship equivalent for learners and observers and lower for judges. These and other findings are consistent with the conclusions that the fluency of generation at study is a cue for JOLs and that such fluency effects are partly mediated by an analytic inference about how fluency is related to memory.

Humans↗

PubMed2001

Measuring strategy production during associative learning: the relative utility of concurrent versus retrospective reports.

Strategy production during associative learning can be measured by self-reports made either concurrently with study or retrospectively. Both kinds of report presumably have strengths and weaknesses, yet a systematic comparison has not been conducted. Younger and older adults studied paired associates and reported strategy production using one or both kinds of report. Participants either received or did not receive descriptions of mediational strategies prior to study. Retrospective reports were not completely consistent with concurrent reports, suggesting that the validity of retrospective reports is somewhat diminished by forgetting. Making concurrent reports did not affect subsequent retrospective reports, but describing strategies affected reported strategy production for both age groups and paired-associate recall for older adults. A production deficiency constrained older adults' performance when they did not receive strategy descriptions prior to study. Discussion focuses on the relative utility of concurrent and retrospective reports of strategy production.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Is perceptual salience needed in explanations of the isolation effect?

The isolation effect is a well-known phenomenon that has a well-accepted explanation: An item that is isolated on a list becomes perceptually salient, which leads to extra rehearsal that enhances memory for the isolate. To evaluate this hypothesis, the authors isolated an item near the beginning of a list. Immediately after each item was presented for study, participants judged the likelihood of recalling the item. Although the isolation effect occurred, participants did not judge the isolate as being more memorable than the preceding item, suggesting that the isolate was not salient. In a second experiment, participants rehearsed items aloud. Isolation at the beginning of the list did not produce extra rehearsal. By contrast, isolation in the middle of the list produced extra rehearsal; however, even when the isolate did not receive extra rehearsal, an isolation effect was evident. Thus, salience and extra rehearsal are not necessary for producing an isolation effect.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Updating knowledge about encoding strategies: a componential analysis of learning about strategy effectiveness from task experience.

Researchers have argued for age deficits in learning about the effects of encoding strategies from task experience, partly on the basis of absolute accuracy of metacognitive judgments. However, these findings could be attributed to factors other than age differences in learning. Forty older and 40 younger adults participated in 2 study-test trials in which they studied paired associates with imagery or repetition, predicted recall for the items, attempted recall, and postdicted recall. Recall was greater after imagery than repetition, yet this effect was not fully reflected by predictions made on Trial 1. Although both older and younger adults accurately postdicted recall from Trial 1, absolute accuracy of the predictions made on Trial 2 showed little improvement. By contrast, both age groups demonstrated increases in between-person correlations of predictions with recall, which is inconsistent with age deficits in knowledge updating. Thus, both older and younger adults had updated knowledge about the relative effects of the strategies, but such updating was not evident in the absolute accuracy of the predictions.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

The rereading effect: metacomprehension accuracy improves across reading trials.

Guided by a hypothesis that integrates principles of monitoring from a cue-based framework of metacognitive judgments with assumptions about levels of text representation derived from theories of comprehension, we discovered that rereading improves metacomprehension accuracy. In Experiments 1 and 2, the participants read texts either once or twice, rated their comprehension for each text, and then were tested on the material. In both experiments, correlations between comprehension ratings and test scores were reliably greater for participants who reread texts than for participants who read texts only once. Furthermore, in contrast to the low levels of accuracy typically reported in the literature, rereading produced relatively high levels of accuracy, with the median gamma between ratings and test performance being +.60 across participants from both experiments. Our discussion focuses on two alternative hypotheses--that improved accuracy is an artifact of when judgments are collected or that it results from increased reliability of test performance--and on evidence that is inconsistent with these explanations for the rereading effect.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

What makes people study more? An evaluation of factors that affect self-paced study.

Allocation of study time across items was investigated in three experiments. According to the norm-affects-allocation hypothesis, when studying an item, a person changes the sought-after degree of learning for the item (called the norm of study) in an attempt to achieve task goals. As the norm of study is increased, more time will be allocated for study. This hypothesis was evaluated by having people pace their study of items for an eventual test of recall. As predicted, study time was greater (a) when points awarded for recalling an item increased, (b) when instructions emphasized mastering each item rather than quickly learning each item, (c) when points deducted for each second of study decreased, and (d) when the likelihood an item would be on the test increased. Also, although allocating more study time was usually accompanied by an increase in eventual recall, under several conditions people's allocation of study time appeared sub-optimal. Discussion focuses on current theory of self-paced study and people's apparent sub-optimal allocation of study time.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

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.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Inhalation of 30% nitrous oxide impairs people's learning without impairing people's judgments of what will be remembered.

Many hypotheses have been proposed to account for the effects of nitrous oxide on memory, with one emerging possibility being that it has a global effect on memory-related functioning. This possibility was explored by examining the effects of nitrous oxide on memory performance and on the accuracy of people's judgments about their memory performance. Participants inhaled 30% nitrous oxide or a placebo gas while items were studied and while judgments were made about the likelihood of recall for each item. Next, all participants inhaled the placebo during paired-associate recall. Although administration of nitrous oxide during study impaired recall, it did not affect the predictive accuracy of the metacognitive judgments. These results provide pharmacological evidence for a distinction between memory and metamemory.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

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.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Older and younger adults use a functionally identical algorithm to select items for restudy during multitrial learning.

We investigated whether aging affects several components of how people select items for study during multitrial learning. Younger and older adults studied paired-associate items and then made delayed judgements of learning (JOLs). Immediately after making a JOL for an item, some participants decided whether to restudy the item on subsequent trials; for other participants, the computer selected for restudy the items that had been judged as least-well learned. Next, paired-associate recall occurred, which was followed by restudy-test trials. As expected, age differences occurred in recall on the first trial, and this difference was propagated across trials. In contrast to the hypothesis that older adults would be more conservative in selecting items, both age groups selected to restudy (a) the items that they had rated as least-well learned and (b) the majority of items that would not be recalled on the first trial. Comparisons between participants who self-selected items vs the groups in which the computer controlled selection also converged on the conclusion of age equivalence in processes underlying item selection.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Age differences in the allocation of study time account for age differences in memory performance.

How aging affects the utilization of monitoring in the allocation of study time was investigated by having adults learn paired associates during multiple study-test trials. During each trial, a subject paced the presentation of individual items and later judged the likelihood of recalling each item on the upcoming test; after all items had been studied and judged, recall occurred. For both age groups in Study 1, (1) people's judgments were highly accurate at predicting recall and (2) intraindividual correlations between judgments (or recall) on one trial, and study times on the next trial were negative, which suggests that subjects utilized monitoring to allocate study time. However, the magnitude of these correlations was less for older than for younger adults. Study 2 revealed that these differences were not due to age differences in forgetting. Results from both studies suggest that older adults do not utilize on-line monitoring to allocate study to the same degree as younger adults do, and that these differences in allocation contribute to age deficits in recall.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Analyses of adult age differences in associative learning.

Data from a recent project concerned with adult age differences in associative learning were reanalyzed to identify the processes involved in the age-related differences in trial-by-trial performance in this task. A measure reflecting the failure to retain feedback relevant to one's previous response accounted for a large proportion of the age differences in the early trials of associative learning. The speed with which individuals completed simple processing operations also contributed to the age differences both in measures of accuracy (percentage correct) and in measures of feedback retention.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Norms of paired-associate recall during multitrial learning of Swahili-English translation equivalents.

No normative data have been available for the recall of recently studied foreign-language vocabulary items. We report data from 200 university undergraduates who had three study-recall trials on Swahili-English translation equivalents (e.g. ardhi-soil). Performance on each of the three study-recall trials is reported for each of the 100 items. Recall varied from near-zero to near-perfect across the combinations of items and trials, thereby allowing investigators to choose combinations of items and trials that will produce any desired range of recall difficulty. Substantial improvements in recall of the items occurred across study-test trials, and therefore the items seem suitable both for investigations of the effect of acquisition variables and for most of the other goals that are satisfied by laboratory paired-associate items.

Association↗

PubMed1992

Importance of the kind of cue for judgments of learning (JOL) and the delayed-JOL effect.

The delayed-JOL effect is the finding in which judgments of learning (JOLs) are more accurate at predicting eventual recall when they are made a short time after study rather than immediately after study. The present research replicated this effect and found that the kind of cue that is used for JOLs is critical. In particular, following the study of stimulus-response paired associates, there is an extremely robust delayed-JOL effect when the cue for JOLs is the stimulus alone (every one of 45 subjects showed the effect); however, there is little, if any, delayed-JOL effect when the cue for JOLs is the stimulus-response pair. This finding has important implications for education: To have the greatest accuracy at predicting eventual recall, a person should make JOLs not immediately after study but, instead, shortly after study (i.e., delayed JOLs) with the cue for JOLs being the stimulus alone. The theoretical mechanisms for the delayed-JOL effect are currently unknown, but some speculations are offered.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Cognition and metacognition at extreme altitudes on Mount Everest.

The FACTRETRIEVAL2 test battery, which assesses both retrieval of general information from memory and metacognition about that retrieval, was administered to people before and after a recent expedition to Mount Everest and at extreme altitudes above 6,400 m (higher than any mountain in North America or Europe). The major findings were as follows: First, the same extreme altitudes already known to impair learning did not affect either accuracy or latency of retrieval, and this robustness of retrieval occurred for both recall and forced-choice recognition. Second, extreme altitude did affect metacognition: The climbers showed a decline in their feeling of knowing both while at extreme altitude and after returning to Kathmandu (i.e., both an effect and an aftereffect of extreme altitude). Third, extreme altitude had different effects than alcohol intoxication (previously assessed by Nelson. McSpadden, Fromme, & Marlatt, 1986). Alcohol intoxication affected retrieval without affecting metacognition, whereas extreme altitude affected metacognition without affecting retrieval; this different pattern for extreme altitude versus alcohol intoxication implies that (a) hypoxia does not always yield the same outcome as alcohol intoxication and (b) neither retrieval nor metacognition is strictly more sensitive than the other for detecting changes in independent variables.

Adult↗