Cognitive - Chapter 6

The Total-Time Hypothesis

*One of The Strategies Emphasizing Practice* --> The amount that you learn depends on the total time you devote to learning (Generally) -->However, if you simply re-read the material over and over, this additional practice will not be helpful. For instance, researchers have found that the variable ''number of hours spent studying'' is not a good method of predicting a student's grade-point average. Instead, study time predicts grade-point average only when the researchers also assess the quality of study strategies

The Distributed-Practice Effect Spaced Learning / Massed Learning Desirable Difficulties

*One of The Strategies Emphasizing Practice* -->Remember more material if you spread your learning trials over time -->You'll remember less if you try ''cramming,'' by learning the material all at once (massed learning). -->One reason that distributed practice is helpful for long-term recall is that it introduces desirable difficulties, in other words, a learning situation that is somewhat challenging, but not too difficult -->According to the current research, a delay of at least one day between practice sessions is especially effective in boosting long-term retention.

Foresight Bias

Occurs when people have been studying for a future exam, and they are overconfident about how they will perform on this exam

Distinctiveness

One memory trace should be different from all other memory traces. People tend to forget information if it is not distinctly different from the other memory traces in their long-term memory. -->Important factor when we try to learn names

Narrative Technique

One of the four mnemonic strategies that emphasize organization --> Instructs people to make up stories that link a series of words together -->Bower and Clark (1969) told a group of people to make up narrative stories that incorporated a set of English words. People in a control group received no special instructions. In all, each group learned twelve lists of words. The results showed that the people in the narrative-technique group recalled about six times as many words as those in the control group. --> Techniques such as this are effective only if you can generate the narrative easily and reliably, during both learning and recall

First-Letter Technique

One of the four mnemonic strategies that emphasize organization --> Take the first letter of each word you want to remember, and then you compose a word or a sentence from those letters --> ROY G. BIV (Colours of the Rainbow) --> Research does not consistently show that this technique is effective.

Hierarchy Technique

One of the four mnemonic strategies that emphasize organization -->A hierarchy is a system in which items are arranged in a series of classes, from the most general classes to the most specific. -->Gordon Bower and his colleagues (1969) asked people to learn words that belonged to four hierarchies similar to the one in Figure 6.3. +Some people learned the words in an organized fashion, others had their words randomly scattered throughout the different positions in each tree. +The group who had learned the organized structure recalled more than three times as many words

Chunking

One of the four mnemonic strategies that emphasize organization -->When we combine several small units into larger units. -->People recall much more material when a string of letters was grouped according to meaningful, familiar units, rather than in arbitrary groups of three. (ex. PHD vs AXZ)

Suggestions for Improving Prospective Memory External Memory Aid

Discussed numerous suggestions to aid retrospective memory. You can use some of these strategies to aid your prospective memory as well. For example, if you create a vivid, interactive mental image of a quart of milk, you might avoid driving past the grocery store in an absentminded fashion -->Another problem is that people are often overconfident that they will remember to perform specific prospective memory task. -->External memory aids are especially helpful on prospective-memory tasks. Defined as any device, external to yourself, that facilitates your memory in some way. Ex. Shopping List / Rubber Band around wrist --> Placement of your external memory aid is also important. Ex. Place keys in refrigerator to remember lunch.

Mnemonics Using Organization

When people use organization as a mnemonic strategy, they try to bring systematic order to the material they want to learn. There are 4 mnemonic strategies / Some may work better for certain material compared to others.

Metamemory About Factors Affecting Memory Accuracy

Many college students are not sufficiently aware of strategic factors that can influence their memory performance --> Students who earn low scores on exams are likely to use no specific memory strategies in learning material for an exam --> students' awareness of their memory should help them identify which memory strategies work best for them and which ones are ineffective. However, students tend to believe that ''all memory strategies are created equal'' Ex. Repetition is as effective as keyword method.

Metamemory and the Regulation of Study Strategies

May have developed your metamemory to the point that you know exactly which study strategies work best in which circumstances --> Memory tasks require a substantial amount of decision making as you plan how to master the material --> Consistent with Theme 4, you must often coordinate at least two cognitive processes—in this case, memory and decision making. -->In some circumstances, students may spend more time on the difficult items than on the easy items. However, when the material is more challenging and the time is limited, students will spend the most time learning the items that are just within their grasp

Mnemonics Using Imagery Mental Imagery Keyword Method

Mnemonics are mental strategies designed to improve your memory -->Some mnemonics emphasize *mental imagery*: We mentally represent objects, actions, or ideas that are not physically present. -->Imagery is especially effective when the items that must be recalled are shown interacting with each other. For example, if you want to remember the pair piano-toast, try to visualize a piano chewing a large piece of toast. In general, an interacting visual image is especially helpful if the image is bizarre. One reason that visualization mnemonics are effective is that they are motivating and interesting -->If you need to remember unfamiliar vocabulary items, the keyword method is especially helpful. In the keyword method, you identify an English word (the keyword) that sounds similar to the new word you want to learn; then you create an image that links the keyword with the meaning of this new word. The research on the keyword method shows that it can help students who are trying to learn new English vocabulary words, vocabulary in another language, or people's names -->Ex. Nicaragua word for turkey is chompipe. Create an image of a turkey chomping down on an enormous pipe. -->Another imagery technique is based on establishing a series of familiar locations, such as the driveway, garage, and front door in a family home. Next you create a mental image of each item that you want to remember. Then you place a mental image of each item in one of those locations. This method is especially useful if you want to remember the items in a specified order.

The Testing Effect

*One of The Strategies Emphasizing Practice* Professors administer tests in an academic course so that they can assess how much you have learned. However, the research demonstrates a second function of tests, called the testing effect; taking a test is actually an excellent way to boost your long-term recall for academic material -->For example, Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke (2006b) asked students to read short essays on a science-related topic. +Half of the students studied the same essays again / other half took a test. +They received a blank sheet of paper and wrote down as much as they could recall from the essay / did not receive feedback +During the last step of the study, everyone received a final test in which they wrote down their recall from the essay. Some students received this final test just 5 minutes after the last activity (either studying or taking the first test). Others were tested after a delay of either 2 days or 1 week. +Figure 6.1 shows the results. As you can see, when students took the test only 5 minutes after the last activity, those who had restudied the material performed slightly better than those who had completed a test on the material. However, after a delay of 2 days or 1 week, students earned much higher scores if their last activity had been taking a test—even though they had received no feedback about their accuracy on that test. -->Apparently, when you take a test, this testing provides practice in retrieving the relevant material. Furthermore, that test produces desirable difficulties. When you try to recall the material you had read, you'll see that the task is somewhat challenging, and you will not be overconfident. When students complete a second test, their recall shows greater organization, compared to students who received additional study time

The Retrieval-Practice Effect

*One of The Strategies Emphasizing Practice* To prepare for an examination, you should also practice retrieving the information from long-term memory. -->Try to recall important concepts from memory; if retrieval is difficult—and you succeed—your learning is enhanced.

Individual Differences: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Metamemory Calibration

--> About 3% to 7% of the U.S. population have ADHD --> People with ADHD have difficulty paying close attention at school, at work, and in other activities --> Researchers located a sample of 28 people from a university and the surrounding community who met the criteria for ADHD. All participants were between the ages of 18 and 60. Then they located 28 people without ADHD, who matched the first group in age, gender, and university versus community status. On the day of the metamemory study, the individuals with ADHD received no medication --> Knouse and her colleagues showed each item pair (e.g., DISEASE-RAILROAD) on a computer screen for 8 seconds. Then the participants were asked to estimate, on a scale from 0 to 100%, the likelihood that they would recall the second word, when given the first word. For 30 pairs, everyone provided metamemory estimates immediately after the initial exposure of each pair. For 30 additional pairs, everyone provided delayed metamemory estimates, after they had seen a random number of intervening items. --> People with and without ADHD were similar in the accuracy of their immediate judgments. The two groups were also similar in the accuracy of their delayed judgments. Furthermore, both groups were even more likely to be ''well calibrated'' in the delayed-judgment condition. However, Knouse and her colleagues (2006) point out that their sample of people with ADHD was not representative. People with ADHD who are university students—or who live near a university—are likely to function better than people with ADHD in the general population. Still, this study demonstrates that, in these circumstances, people with ADHD can make highly accurate judgments about an important component of memory. Calibration --> measures people's accuracy in estimating their actual performance.

Improving Metacomprehension

--> Read a passage, wait a few minutes, and then try to explain the passage to yourself, without looking at the written passage / Furthermore, when you use this kind of active reading, you are less likely to ''zone out'' and fail to notice that you are no longer paying attention to your reading --> One component of metacomprehension requires you to accurately assess whether you understand a written passage. However, metacomprehension also requires you to regulate your reading, so that you know how to read more effectively +Good and poor readers differ in their awareness that certain reading strategies are useful. Good readers try to make connections among the ideas they have read. They also try to create visual images, based on descriptions in the text +Good readers outline and summarize material in their own words. +Students may have difficulty applying the more sophisticated metamemory strategies, especially if they have limited working- memory capacity. However, these students can substantially improve their reading comprehension by reading the same material a second time

Metacognition Self-Knowledge

--> Refers to your knowledge and control of your cognitive processes. --> One important function of metacognition is to supervise the way you select and use your memory strategies. Consistent with Theme 1, metacognition is an extremely active process. As you'll see, metacognition requires focused thinking and self-assessment -->Metacognition is an intriguing topic because we use our cognitive processes to think about our cognitive processes. -->The topic of metacognition belongs to a larger issue in psychology, called self-knowledge, or what people believe about themselves. Self-knowledge includes the topics in this chapter, as well as your knowledge about your social behavior and your personality. Furthermore, social psychologists are beginning to study people's metacognition about their attitudes Ex. Maybe I like Pat and Devon because they look attractive, rather than because they are nice people.

Metacomprehension

--> Refers to your thoughts about language comprehension. Most research on metacomprehension focuses on reading comprehension, rather than on the comprehension of spoken speech --> Two topics in connection with metacomprehension. First, how accurate is the typical college student's metacomprehension? Second, how can you improve your metacomprehension skills?

Factors that Influence People's Metamemory Accuracy

-->Estimating the Accuracy for Total Score Versus the Accuracy for Individual Items. -->Estimating the Score Immediately Versus After a Delay -->Estimating the Scores on Essay Questions Versus Multiple-Choice Questions

Self-Reference Effect

-Deep Level of Processing Enhance long-term memory by relating the material to your own experiences

Section Summary I

1. Chapters 3 and 4 presented several problems that can decrease learning. These include problems with divided attention and limited working memory. 2. Chapter 5 introduced several strategies for improving memory. These include using deep levels of processing (including elaboration, distinctiveness, and the self-reference method). Encoding specificity is sometimes helpful. However, it is important to avoid the dangers of overconfidence. 3. Chapter 6, the current chapter, discusses four general memory-improvement strategies that focus on aspects of practice: the total-time hypothesis, the retrieval-practice effect, the distributed-practice effect, and the testing effect. 4. Some useful mnemonics focus on imagery; these include visualizing the items in vivid interaction and the keyword method. 5. Other useful mnemonics focus on organization; these include chunking, the hierarchy technique, the first-letter technique, and the narrative technique. 6. Most of the research focuses on retrospective memory. In contrast, the in-depth section of this chapter examines prospective memory, or remembering to do something in the future. Although the two kinds of memory have somewhat different focuses, they share some important similarities. 7. People make more errors on prospective-memory tasks when they are in a divided-attention situation, when they need to disrupt a habitual activity to perform the prospective-memory task, and when they are preoccupied. 8. In general, prospective memory is more accurate if people use the same memory strategies they use in retrospective-memory tasks, if they avoid overconfidence, and if they use external memory aids.

Section Summary II

1. Metacognition is your knowledge and control of your cognitive processes; three important components of metacognition are metamemory, the tip-of- the-tongue phenomenon, and metacomprehension. 2. A variety of factors influence people's metamemory accuracy. Specifically, people are more accurate when they are judging individual items, when their judgment is delayed, and when they judge their performance on multiple- choice questions, rather than performance on essays. 3. In a study by Knouse and her coauthors (2006), people with ADHD were similar to people without ADHD in their metamemory judgments, both immediate and delayed. 4. In general, students are not sufficiently aware that some memory strategies are more effective than others. 5. When the task is easy, students spend somewhat more time studying difficult material, rather than easy material. When the task is difficult and time is limited, students typically study the material that they are most likely to master. 6. The research on the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon shows that—even when people cannot remember the word for which they are searching—they can often identify important attributes such as the sound of the word. 7. The phrase ''feeling of knowing'' refers to situations in which you think you could select the correct answer from several choices, even though the target isn't actually on the tip of your tongue. 8. Studies on metacomprehension suggest that students are often overconfident in judging whether they understand the material they have read, especially if they have low reading ability. 9. Students' metacomprehension can be improved if they wait a few minutes and then try to summarize the material. Good readers also use a variety of strategies to regulate their reading.

Chapter Review Questions

1. One trend throughout this chapter is that deep levels of processing can enhance your memory. Review the material in the section on memory strategies, and identify which studies use some form of deep processing. Also explain why deep processing would be important in metacognition. 2. In general, your memory is more accurate when you have a small amount of information that you need to remember. Point out why the elaboration strategy doesn't follow this trend. Then choose at least two topics from this chapter, and use elaboration to make the material easier to remember. 3. Review the list of memory-improvement strategies in Table6.1 (pp.186-187). Which of these did you already use before you graduated from high school? Which did you discover while studying for exams, after you entered college? 4. Without looking at Table 6.1, describe as many of the memory-improvement techniques from this chapter as you can remember. Which techniques focus on strategies, and which focus on metacognition? In each case, describe how you can use each one to remember some information from this chapter for your next exam in cognitive psychology. 5. How is prospective memory different from retrospective memory? What factors make prospective memory more difficult? Think of a specific person you know who complains about his or her memory. What hints could you provide to this person to encourage better prospective-memory performance? 6. Prior to reading this chapter, did you ever think about the topic of metamemory—even if you didn't know this term? Recall this chapter's discussion about factors that can influence people's metamemory accuracy. Which factors are consistent with your own experiences? 7. What evidence suggests that people can supply information about a target, when they report that a word is on the tip of their tongue? Why is this topic related to metacognition? What other components of the tip-of-the-tongue effect and the feeling-of-knowing effect would be interesting topics for future research? 8. Several parts of this chapter emphasize that people tend to be overconfident about their ability to remember material and to understand written material. Summarize this information. Then describe how you can apply this information when you are reading and studying for your next exam in your course on cognitive psychology. 9. Some parts of the section on metacognition emphasize how people can control and modify their study strategies and reading strategies, in addition to simply knowing about their own cognitive processes. Describe the research on strategy regulation. In what ways has your own strategy regulation changed since you began college? Suppose that you have not changed: What strategies and study techniques would be most useful to modify? 10. What kind of metacomprehension tasks are relevant when you are reading this textbook? List as many different tasks as possible. Why do you suppose that metacomprehension for reading passages of text would be less accurate than people's metamemory for learning pairs of words (for example, the task described in Demonstration 6.1)?

Memory-Improvement Strategies

1. Suggestions from previous chapters a. Do not divide your attention between several simultaneous tasks. b. Keep in mind that your working memory is limited; figure out strategies to overcome this problem. c. Process information in terms of its meaning, rather than at a shallow level; emphasize elaborative encodings, distinctiveness, and self-reference. d. When you study, apply the encoding-specificity principle by creating questions for yourself that have the same format as the questions on your exam. e. Don't be overconfident about the accuracy of your memory for events in your life. 2. Techniques related to practice a. The amount you learn depends on the total time that you spend practicing. b. You'll learn more effectively if you spread your learning trials over time (the distributed-practice effect). c. You'll enhance your memory simply by taking tests on the material. 3. Mnemonics using imagery a. Use imagery, especially imagery that shows an interaction between the items that need to be recalled. b. Use the keyword method; for example, if you are learning vocabulary in another language, identify an English word that sounds like the target word, and link the English word with the meaning of that target word. 4. Mnemonics using organization a. Use chunking by combining isolated items into meaningful units. b. Construct a hierarchy by arranging items in a series of categories. c. Take the first letter of each item you want to remember, and compose a word or sentence from these letters (first-letter technique). d. Create a narrative, or a story that links a series of words together. 5. Improving prospective memory a. Create a vivid, interactive mental image to prompt future recall. b. Create a specific reminder or an external memory aid.

Metamemory and the Likelihood of Remembering a Specific Target

At some point during the last week, it's likely that you've had one (or both) of the following memory experiences: 1. The tip-of-the-tongue effect describes your subjective experience of knowing the target word for which you are searching, yet you cannot recall it right now. 2. The feeling-of-knowing effect describes the subjective experience of knowing some information, but you cannot recall it right now.

Metacomprehension Accuracy

College students are not very accurate in their metacomprehension skills. For example, they may not notice that a paragraph contains inconsistencies or missing information. Instead, they think they understand it -->Students often believe that they have understood something they have read because they are familiar with its general topic. However, they often fail to retain specific information, and they may overestimate how they will perform when they are tested on the material

Tip-of-the-Tongue Effect

Generally an involuntary effect. In contrast, the feeling of knowing is more conscious. -->You carefully assess whether you could recognize the answer if you were given several options, as in a multiple-choice question --> Both of these effects activate the frontal lobe of the brain, which is also important in other metacognitive tasks. Both of these effects are clearly related to metacognition because you make judgments about whether you know some information. -->Both the tip-of-the-tongue effect and the feeling-of-knowing effect are also related to several other topics in cognitive psychology, including consciousness, semantic memory, and language production. As Theme 4 points out, our cognitive processes are interrelated.

Metamemory

In this section of the current chapter, we will examine several important kinds of metacognition. Our first topic is metamemory, a topic that refers to people's knowledge, monitoring, and control of their memory -->Extremely important when you want to improve your memory

Tip-of-the-Finger Effect

Interestingly, the deaf community has a similar term, the tip-of-the- finger effect, which refers to the subjective experience of knowing the target sign, but that sign is temporarily inaccessible

Estimating the Score Immediately Versus After a Delay

People do not provide accurate memory estimates for individual items, if they make these estimates immediately after learning the items. In contrast—if they delay their judgments—they are reasonably accurate in predicting which items they will recall -->These delayed judgments are especially likely to provide accurate assessments of your memory performance because they assess long-term memory -->So far, we've seen that students tend to provide overly optimistic metamemory judgments if they predict their total score on an exam, as opposed to predicting which specific items they will remember. We've also seen that students supply overly optimistic metamemory judgments if they predict their scores immediately after seeing the material, as opposed to predicting their score after some time has passed.

Avoiding Overconfidence

People often believe that they have highly accurate memories about their life experiences. However, even their so-called flashbulb memories usually contain some errors. This area of research suggests that we are often overconfident about our memory skills.

Estimating the Accuracy for Total Score Versus the Accuracy for Individual Items

People tend to be overconfident if you ask them to predict their total score on a memory test. In contrast, people tend to be accurate if you ask them to predict which individual items they will remember and which ones they will forget -->In some of the metamemory studies, students begin by studying a list of paired associates, such as coat-sandwich. + Students asked to predict total number of correct responses they will supply on test. + They are likely to commit the foresight bias; they overestimate the number of answers they will correctly supply on a future test + Another problem: participants are studying those word pairs while the correct responses are visible, prediction may be overly optimistic. -->*So far, we have seen that people tend to be overconfident when they estimate the total number of correct items. However, the situation is more hopeful when we measure metamemory in a different fashion. In fact, the research shows that people's metamemory can be highly accurate when they predict which individual items they'll remember and which ones they'll forget*

Embodied Cognition

People who are captured by a tip-of-the-tongue experience often exhibit various kinds of nonverbal behaviors. Ex. Exaggerated facial expression/jiggle their feet/hold their head in their hands. These physical actions are an example of embodied cognition, a perspective that emphasizes how our abstract thoughts are often expressed by our motor behavior.

Memory Strategy

Perform mental activities that can help to improve your encoding and retrieval.

Study about Metacomprehension

Pressley and Ghatala (1988) tested introductory psychology students by assessing their meta- comprehension, as well as their performance on tests of reading ability. -->Questions about reading comprehension typically contain 1-3 paragraphs. Essay remains visible while you answer several multiple- choice questions. Each question has five possible answers. Therefore, a person who simply guesses on an answer would be correct 20% of the time --> Students answered multiple-choice questions, and then they rated how certain they were that they had answered each question correctly. --> *Incidentally, you should notice that this task focuses on metacomprehension. The test would have assessed metamemory, rather than metacomprehension, if (1) There had been a delay between the reading task and the presentation of the multiple-choice questions and (2) If the essay was no longer present.* -->When a student had answered a reading comprehension question correctly/average certainty rating of 73%. In other words, the students were fairly confident about these items, which is appropriate. However, when a student answered a question incorrectly/average certainty rating of about 64%. Unfortunately, this is about the same level of confidence that the students showed for the items they answered correctly --> Furthermore, these data suggest that students are often highly overconfident. In general, the research shows that readers are not very accurate in estimating whether they have understood the material that they have just read --> Irrelevant features may lead students to overestimate their understanding of a textbook passage / Ex. Lots of diagrams may lead to overconfidence. --> metacomprehension accuracy and reading-comprehension scores were significantly correlated (r = +.43)

Levels of Processing

Shows that you will generally recall information more accurately if you process it at a deep level, rather than a shallow level --> Deep levels of processing facilitate learning because of two factors, elaboration and distinctiveness Elaboration--> If you want to emphasize elaboration, you will concentrate on the specific meaning of a particular concept; you'll also try to relate this concept to your prior knowledge and to interconnected concepts that you have already mastered. You should emphasize rich, elaborate encoding, for instance, by explaining a concept to yourself. Rehersal--> In contrast, if you use simple rehearsal, or repeating the information you want to learn, you will be wasting your time.

Comparing Prospective and Retrospective Memory

Prospective memory typically focuses on action. In contrast, retrospective memory is likely to focus on remembering information and ideas --> Research on prospective memory is more likely to emphasize ecological validity. In other words, researchers try to design tasks that resemble the kind of prospective-memory tasks we face in our daily lives -->Despite their differences, prospective memory and retrospective memory are governed by some of the same variables. Memory is more accurate for both kinds of memory tasks if you use both distinctive encoding and effective retrieval cues. Both kinds of memory are more accurate when you have only a short delay prior to retrieval. Also, prospective memory and retrospective memory show similar rates of forgetting, with the passage of time. Finally, prospective memory relies on regions of the frontal lobe that also play a role in retrospective memory

Prospective Memory

Prospective memory: Remembering that you need to do something in the future. -->Most people rank prospective-memory errors among the most common memory lapses and also among the most embarrassing -->Prospective-memory tasks include two components. 1) You must establish that you intend to accomplish a particular task at some future time. 2) At that future time, you must fulfill your original intention --> Occasionally, the primary challenge is to remember the actual content of the action. You've probably experienced the feeling that you know you are supposed to do something, but you cannot remember what it is. However, most of the time, the primary challenge is simply to remember to perform an action in the future

Encoding-Specificity Principle

Recall is often better if the context at the time of encoding matches the context at the time when your retrieval will be tested. As we noted in Chapter 5, context effects are often inconsistent -->For example, you probably will not improve your grade if you decide to study for an upcoming exam by reviewing the material in the specific classroom where you'll be taking this exam. -->Does provide some other more general strategies. For instance, when you are trying to devise study strategies, consider how you will be tested on your next examination. Example; Exam essay format. Practice writing answers as essays.

Retrospective Memory

Retrospective Memory: remembering information that you acquired in the past.

Research on TOT

Roger Brown and David McNeill (1966) conducted investigation in this area. Their description of a man ''seized'' by a tip-of-the-tongue state may capture the torment you sometimes feel when you fail to retrieve a word from the tip of your tongue: -->Produced the tip-of-the-tongue state by giving people the definition for an uncommon English word—such as sampan / asked them to identify the word. Sometimes people supplied the appropriate / other times they were confident that they did not know the word. In other cases, the definition produced a tip-of-the-tongue state. The researchers would then asked people to provide words that resembled the target word in terms of sound, but not meaning. For example, when the target word was sampan, people provided these similar-sounding responses: Saipan, Siam. -->Think about why the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is one kind of metacognition. People are familiar enough with their memory for the target word to say, ''This word is on the tip of my tongue.'' Their knowledge is fairly accurate, because they are likely to identify the first letter and other attributes of the target word. They are also likely to provide similar-sounding words that really do resemble the target word --> In decades that followed their research: Young adults report having approximately one tip-of-the-tongue experience each week + Bilingual individuals experience the tip-of-the-tongue effect more frequently than monolinguals. + Not just for English speakers

Allocating Time When the Task Is Difficult

Son and Metcalfe (2000) designed a situation that closely resembles a college situation. Test material was a series of eight biographies. A good reader would need about 60 minutes to read them all completely. However, the researchers increased the time pressure for this task by allowing the students only 30 minutes to read all the material. The students began the study by reading a single paragraph from each biography; they ranked these paragraphs in terms of their perceived difficulty. Then the researchers informed them that they would have 30 minutes to read the material, and they could choose how to spend their time. -->Students spent the majority of their study time on the biographies that they considered easy, rather than those they considered difficult. Notice that this strategy is wise, because they can master more material within the limited time frame. --> According to additional studies, when students are facing time pressure, they choose to study material that seems relatively easy to master. Furthermore, Metcalfe tested students who had expertise in a given area. Compared to novices, these ''expert'' students chose to concentrate their time on more challenging material.

Conclusions About the Regulation of Study Strategies

Students often regulate their study strategies in a sophisticated fashion --> When they have time to master a relatively easy task, they allocate the most time to the difficult items. On a more challenging task—with time pressure—they realistically adjust their study strategies so that they focus on the items they are likely to master in the limited time frame --> We have seen that students regulate their study strategies. Furthermore, they can also regulate the regulation of their study strategies! That is, they choose one style for easy tasks and a different style for difficult tasks. As Metcalfe (2000) concludes, ''Rather than simply being passive repositories for knowledge and memories, humans can use their knowledge of what they know to exert control over what they know [and] what they will know''

Estimating the Scores on Essay Questions Versus Multiple-Choice Questions

Students were generally more accurate in estimating their scores on the multiple-choice questions --> So far, we have examined three factors that influence students' metamemory accuracy. We have seen that students' estimates about their memory are generally more accurate under the following conditions: (1) when they predict their accuracy on individual test items, rather than total scores; (2) when they predict their accuracy after a delay, rather than immediately after seeing the items; (3) when they predict their accuracy on multiple-choice questions, rather than on essay questions. Now let's consider whether a specific kind of individual difference could influence metamemory

Feeling of Knowing

Subjective experience that you know some information, but you cannot recall it right now. So, you contemplate the question, and you judge that you could recognize the answer, for example, if you saw this item on a multiple-choice exam --> Typically have a strong feeling of knowing if they can retrieve a large amount of partial information --> Ex. Read a book / Try to remember authors name / Name was not on the tip of my tongue, but I definitely had a ''feeling of knowing'' --> Tip-of-the-tongue effect and the feeling-of-knowing effect are fairly similar, though your tip-of-the-tongue experiences may be more extreme and more irritating. --> The current neuroimaging data suggest that these two effects are associated with somewhat different brain patterns. For example, the right prefrontal region of the cortex is more likely to be associated with the tip-of-the- tongue effect. In contast, the left prefrontal region is more likely to be associated with the feeling-of-knowing effect.

Absentmindedness and Prospective-Memory Failures

The typical prospective-memory task represents a divided- attention situation. You must focus on your ongoing activity, as well as on the task you need to remember in the future. -->Absentminded behavior is especially likely when the prospective-memory task requires you to disrupt a customary activity. Suppose that this customary activity is driving from your college to your home. Now suppose that you have a prospective- memory task that you must perform today, for example, buying milk at the grocery store on your way home. In cases like this, your long-standing habit dominates the more fragile prospective memory, and you fall victim to absentminded behavior. -->Prospective-memory errors are more likely in highly familiar surroundings when you are performing a task automatically. Consider people who want to stop smoking. Typically acknowledge that they automatically light up a cigarette in the kitchen, right after breakfast. They will probably need to move directly to a different room, in order to break the smoking habit -->Absentminded behavior is also more likely if you are preoccupied or distracted, or if you are feeling time pressure. Dismukes and Nowinski (2007) studied the records of 75 airplane crashes that could be attributed to the crew members' memory failures. Out of 75 crashes, 74 could be traced to prospective-memory errors, and only one could be traced to a retrospective-memory error.

Allocating Time When the Task Is Easy

Thomas Nelson and R. Jacob Leonesio (1988) examined how students distribute their study time when they can study at their own pace. In this study, students were allowed a reasonable amount of time to study the material. -->Students allocated somewhat more study time for the items that they believed would be difficult to master. The correlations here averaged about +.30. --> Students did not passively review all the material equally. This research on metamemory reveals that people often take an active, strategic approach to this cognitive task, a finding that is consistent with Theme 1 about active processing. --> Why is this crucial correlation as low as +.30? Unfortunately, students are less than ideal in regulating their study strategies. They spend longer than necessary studying items they already know, and not enough time studying the items they have not yet mastered. One possible explanation for these results is that students are not very accurate in judging whether their mastery of material has actually improved when they have spent more time studying it.

Application of Elaboration

You can learn and remember complex material more easily if you create and answer ''why questions.'' -->To answer these questions, you must use deep processing to think about the meaning of the material and connect this new material with the information you already know.