Retrieval Monitoring Affects Self-Regulated Learning of Young and Older Adults
DeCaro, Renée.
2018
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Abstract: Successful learning and remembering in older adulthood is essential, and its failures can have uniquely serious consequences. The present research investigates failures that arise from metamemorial deficits, and tests their influence on how one regulates subsequent learning. The present study tested the influence of retrieval and cues derived from the structure of the task on self-regulated ... read morelearning in older and young adults. In three experiments, young and older adults studied unrelated cue-target pairs, and made item-by-item monitoring judgments after initial study had concluded. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants made feeling of knowing (FOK) predictions, after attempted target retrieval. Participants engaged in control, implemented as the decision to restudy a subset of items, either following the initial monitoring phase (Experiments 1 and 3) or during the initial monitoring phase (Experiment 2). Participants restudied the selected cue-target pairs and received a final recall test on all items. In Experiment 1, both age groups demonstrated a negative relationship between FOK and control, though the relationship was stronger in young compared to older adults. Experiments 2 and 3 established how specific metamemorial task designs promoted or deterred age differences. When control was implemented during the monitoring phase on a trial-by-trial basis (Experiment 2), the relationship between monitoring and control was weakened. When monitoring instructed a specific retrieval attempt (Experiment 3), absolute confidence was lower than when individuals were not instructed to attempt retrieval. These results suggest that retrieval and monitoring predict whether an item will be restudied later in both younger and older adults, and that observed age differences may depend, in part, on design features within the experimenter's control.
Thesis (M.S.)--Tufts University, 2018.
Submitted to the Dept. of Psychology.
Advisor: Ayanna Thomas.
Committee: Jodi Price, Nathan Ward, and Ariel Goldberg.
Keywords: Cognitive psychology, and Experimental psychology.read less - ID:
- k643bc59h
- Component ID:
- tufts:25009
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote