Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Previous article
Next article
Original Article

Learning From (Test) Experience

Testing Without Feedback Promotes Metacognitive Sensitivity to Near-Perfect Recognition Memory

Published Online:October 30, 2020https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000424

Abstract

Abstract. To date there has been relatively little research within the domain of metamemory that examines how individuals monitor their performance during memory tests, and whether the outcome of such monitoring informs subsequent memory predictions for novel items. In the current study, we sought to determine whether spontaneous monitoring of test performance can in fact help individuals better appreciate their memory abilities, and in turn shape future judgments of learning (JOLs). Specifically, in two experiments we examined recognition memory for visual images across three study-test cycles, each of which contained novel images. We found that across cycles, participants’ JOLs did in fact increase, reflecting metacognitive sensitivity to near-perfect levels of recognition memory performance. This finding suggests that individuals can and do monitor their test performance in the absence of explicit feedback, and further underscores the important role that test experience can play in shaping metacognitive evaluations of learning and remembering.

References

  • Begg, I., Duft, S., Lalonde, P., Melnick, R., & Sanvito, J. (1989). Memory predictions are based on ease of processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 28(5), 610–632. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(89)90016-8 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Bjork, R. A. (1999). Assessing our own competence: Heuristics and illusions. In D. GopherA. KoriatEds., Attention and performance XVII: Cognitive regulation of performance: Interaction of theory and application (pp. 435–459). MIT Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Bjork, R. A., Dunlosky, J., & Kornell, N. (2013). Self-regulated learning: Beliefs, techniques and illusions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 417–444. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143823 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Brady, T. F., Konkle, T., Alvarez, G. A., & Oliva, A. (2008). Visual long-term memory has a massive storage capacity for object details. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(38), 14325–14329. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803390105 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Dunlosky, J., Mueller, M. L., & Thiede, K. W. (2016). Methodology for investigating human metamemory: Problems and pitfalls. In J. DunloskyS. K. TauberEds., The Oxford handbook of metamemory (pp. 23–37). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199336746.013.14 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Finn, B., & Metcalfe, J. (2007). The role of memory for past test in the underconfidence with practice effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33(1), 238–244. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.33.1.238 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Groninger, L. (1976). Predicting recognition during storage: The capacity of the memory system to evaluate itself. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 7(5), 425–428. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337236 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hertzog, C., Hines, J. C., & Touron, D. R. (2013). Judgments of learning are influenced by multiple cues in addition to memory for past test accuracy. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 1, 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000003 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Higham, P. A., Zawadzka, K., & Hanczakowski, M. (2016). Internal mapping and its impact on measures of absolute and relative metacognitive accuracy. In J. DunloskyS. K. TauberEds., The Oxford handbook of metamemory (pp. 39–61). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199336746.013.15 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hourihan, K. L. (2019). Misleading emotions: Judgments of learning overestimate recognition of negative and positive emotional images. Cognition & Emotion, 34, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1682972 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hourihan, K. L., & Bursey, E. (2017). A misleading feeling of happiness: Metamemory for positive emotional and neutral pictures. Memory, 25(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1122809 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Kelley, C. M., & Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Remembering mistaken for knowing: Ease of retrieval as a basis for confidence in answers to general knowledge questions. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1993.1001 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Koriat, A. (1993). How do we know that we know? The accessibility model of the feeling of knowing. Psychological Review, 100, 609–639. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.4.609 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Koriat, A. (1997). Monitoring one’s own knowledge during study: A cue-utilization approach to judgments of learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126(4), 349–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.126.4.349 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Koriat, A., & Bjork, R. A. (2005). Illusions of competence in monitoring one’s knowledge during study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 31(2), 187–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.31.2.187 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Koriat, A., & Bjork, R. A. (2006a). Mending metacognitive illusions: A comparison of mnemonic-based and theory-based procedures. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 1133–1145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.32.5.1133 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Koriat, A., & Bjork, R. A. (2006b). Illusions of competence during study can be remedied by manipulations that enhance learners’ sensitivity to retrieval conditions at test. Memory & Cognition, 34, 959–972. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193244 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Koriat, A., Bjork, R. A., Sheffer, L., & Bar, S. K. (2004). Predicting one’s own forgetting: The role of experience-based and theory-based processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133(4), 643–656. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.133.4.643 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Koriat, A., Sheffer, L., & Ma’ayan, H. (2002). Comparing objective and subjective learning curves: Judgments of learning exhibit increased underconfidence with practice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131(2), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.131.2.147 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2008). International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual (Technical Report A-8). University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Marchewka, A., Żurawski, Ł., Jednoróg, K., & Grabowska, A. (2014). The Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS): Introduction to a novel, standardized, wide-range, high-quality, realistic picture database. Behavior Research Methods, 46(2), 596–610. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0379-1 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Mazzoni, G., & Nelson, T. O. (1995). Judgments of learning are affected by the kind of encoding in ways that cannot be attributed to the level of recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 1263–1274. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.21.5.1263 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Metcalfe, J., & Finn, B. (2008). Evidence that judgments of learning are causally related to study choice. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 174–179. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.1.174 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Morey, R. D. (2008). Confidence intervals from normalized data: A correction to Cousineau (2005). Tutorial in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 4(2), 61–64. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.04.2.p061 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Nelson, T. O., & Dunlosky, J. (1992). How shall we explain the delayed-judgment-of-learning effect? Psychological Science, 3(5), 317–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00681.x First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Rescorla, R. A., & Wagner, A. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement. In A. H. BlackW. F. ProkasyEds., Classical conditioning II: Current research and theory (Vol. 2, pp. 64–99). Appleton-Century-Crofts. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Rosner, T. M., Davis, H., & Milliken, B. (2015). Perceptual blurring and recognition memory: A desirable difficulty effect revealed. Acta Psychologica, 160, 11–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.06.006 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Snodgrass, J. G., & Corwin, J. (1988). Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: Applications to dementia and amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117(1), 34–50. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.117.1.34 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Thiede, K. W., & Dunlosky, J. (1994). Delaying students’ metacognitive monitoring improves their accuracy in predicting their recognition performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(2), 290–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.86.2.290 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Touron, D. R., Hertzog, C., & Speagle, J. Z. (2010). Subjective learning discounts test type: Evidence from an associative learning and transfer task. Experimental Psychology, 57, 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000039 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Undorf, M., Zimdahl, M. F., & Bernstein, D. M. (2017). Perceptual fluency contributes to effects of stimulus size on judgments of learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 92, 293–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.07.003 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Yue, C. L., Castel, A. D., & Bjork, R. A. (2013). When disfluency is – and is not – a desirable difficulty: The influence of typeface clarity on metacognitive judgments and memory. Memory & Cognition, 41(2), 229–241. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-012-0255-8 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Zimmerman, C. A., & Kelley, C. M. (2010). “I’ll remember this!” Effects of emotionality on memory predictions versus memory performance. Journal of Memory and Language, 62, 240–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2009.11.004 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar