Biomedical subjects

J T O'Sullivan

Publications and source records attributed to J T O'Sullivan.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Effort, interest, and recall: beliefs and behaviors of preschoolers.

Sixty preschoolers participated in two experimental sessions designed to measure their beliefs about the relations between effort, interest, and recall as well as their actual effort deployment and recall under different interest levels. In Session 1, children made paired-comparison judgments about the individual and combined effects of high versus low effort and high versus low interest on recall. In Session 2, the children's effort deployment (behavior during study), recall, and attributions for recall in high versus low interest conditions were examined. Findings from Session 1 indicated that the children believed that recall increases with effort and with interest. They also believed that interest influences the amount of effort expended during study such that high interest elicits high effort and leads to superior recall relative to a low interest-low effort combination. Findings from Session 2 indicated that these beliefs were quite naive; that is, interest level did influence the children's effort deployment during study but the effects were more complex than the children had predicted. Contrary to the children's beliefs, effort was not related to recall and recall was superior in the low- not the high-interest condition. Consistent sex differences in beliefs, behavior, and recall performance were found. Compared with boys, most girls held naive beliefs about effort and interest and this naivete was associated with strategic behavior and recall performance advantages. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance and limitations of preschoolers' beliefs about memory.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1996

Children's metamemory about the influence of conceptual relations on recall.

Developmental differences in children's metamemory about the influence of conceptual relations on free recall were examined. First, third, and fifth grade children memorized two lists of words, a two-category (items blocked by category) and an unrelated list. On both lists, four metamemory measures were obtained from each subject. These were estimates of recall performance, estimates of the cognitive effort associated with that recall performance, causal attributions about recall, and reports of strategy use. At each grade, subjects recalled more words on the related than the unrelated list and demonstrated reliable clustering at recall for the related words. Metamemory about the influence of conceptual relations was demonstrated at each grade level, but the nature of that metamemory changed with age. Even the youngest children realized that their recall performance would be superior on the related list but they did not understand how or why their recall was facilitated. With age, children attributed superior recall of the related material to the categorical relations in the stimuli, reported using categorical organization strategies, and demonstrated increasing awareness of the facilitative effects of conceptual relations on cognitive effort. Older children used their metamemory to direct their use of organizational strategies and to enhance recall on the related list. However, the four aspects of metamemory were not well coordinated at any grade level. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of developing comprehensive, well-elaborated models of metamemory development.

Association Learning↗

PubMed1995

Metamemory and memory construction.

In this article, we present the contemporary conceptualization of metamemory as beliefs, accurate and naive, about memory. We discuss the implications of metamemory for memory construction in general and for suggestibility and the recovery of memories in particular. We argue that beliefs about memory influence (a) the probability that suggestions will be incorporated into memory and (b) judgments about the veracity of subsequent recollections. Implications for research on the role of beliefs in suggestibility and memory recovery are outlined.

Adolescent↗