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Strategies & Metacognition Article List
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Papers:
Price, J., Hertzog, C., & DunloskyJ. (in
press). Age-related differences in strategy knowledge updating: blocked
testing produces greater improvements in metacognitive accuracy for
younger than older adults.
Abstract
Age-related
differences in updating knowledge about strategy effectiveness after
task experience have not been consistently found, perhaps because the
magnitude of observed knowledge updating has been rather meager for both
age groups. We examined whether creating homogeneous blocks of recall
tests based on two strategies used at encoding (imagery and repetition)
would enhance people’s learning about strategy effects on recall.
Younger and older adults demonstrated greater knowledge updating (as
measured by questionnaire ratings of strategy effectiveness and by
global judgments of performance) with blocked (vs. random) testing. The
benefit of blocked testing for absolute accuracy of global predictions
was smaller for older than younger adults. However, individual
differences in correlations of strategy effectiveness ratings and
postdictions showed similar upgrades for both age groups. Older adults
learn about imagery’s superior effectiveness but do no t accurately
estimate the magnitude of its benefit, even after blocked testing.
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Hertzog, C., Price, J., & DunloskyJ. (in
press). How is knowledge generate about memory encoding strategy
effectiveness.
Abstract
This study evaluated how people learn
about encoding strategy effectiveness in an associative memory task.
Individuals studied two lists of paired associates under instructions to
use either a normatively effective strategy (interactive imagery) or a
normatively ineffective strategy (rote repetition) for each pair.
Questionnaire ratings of imagery effectiveness increased and ratings of
repetition effectiveness decreased after task experience, demonstrating
new knowledge about strategy effectiveness. Cued recall confidence
judgments, measuring confidence in recall accuracy, were almost
perfectly correlated with actual recall and strongly correlated with
postdictions – estimates of recall for each strategy. A structural
regression model revealed that postdictions mediated both changes in
second- list predictions and changes in strategy effectiveness ratings,
implicating accurate performance estimates based on item- level
monitoring as the key to updating strategy knowledge.
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Hertzog, C.,
Price, J., Burpee, A., Frentzel, W.J., Feldstein, S., & Dunlosky, J.
(in press). Why Do People Show Minimal Knowledge Updating with Task
Experience:
Inferential Deficit or Experimental Artifact?
Abstract
Students generally
do not have highly accurate knowledge about strategy effectiveness for
learning, such as that imagery is superior to rote repetition. During
multiple study-test trials using both strategies, participants’
predictions about performance on List 2 do not markedly differ for the
two strategies, even though List 1 recall is substantially greater for
imagery. Two experiments evaluated whether such deficits in knowledge
updating about the strategy effects were due to an experimental artifact
or to inaccurate inferences about the effects the strategies had on
recall. Participants studied paired associates on two study-test
trials—they were instructed to study half using imagery and half using
rote repetition. Metacognitive judgments tapped the quality of
inferential processes about the strategy effects during the List 1 test
and tapped gains in knowledge about the strategies across lists. One
artifactual explanation – noncompliance with strategy instructions --
was ruled out, whereas manipulations aimed at supporting the data
available to inferential processes improved but did not fully repair
knowledge updating.
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Elizabeth A.L Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Soederberg Miller, L.M.,
Gagne D.D., & Hertzog, C. (2008). Self-regulated reading
in adulthood. Psycology and Aging, 23, 131-153.
Abstract
Younger and
older adults read a series of passages of three different genres for an
immediate assessment of text memory (measured by recall and true-false
questions). Word-by-word reading times were measured and decomposed into
components reflecting resource allocation to particular linguistic
processes using regression. Allocation to word and textbase processes
showed some consistency across the three text types and was predictive
of memory performance. Older adults allocated more time to word and
textbase processes than the young did, but showed enhanced contextual
facilitation. Structural equation modeling showed that greater resource
allocation to word processes was required among readers with relatively
low working memory spans and poorer verbal ability, and that greater
resource allocation to textbase processes was engendered by higher
verbal ability. Results are discussed in terms of a model of
self-regulated language processing suggesting that older readers may
compensate for processing deficiencies through greater reliance on
discourse context and on increases in resource allocation that are
enabled through growth in crystallized ability.
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Hertzog, C., Dunlosky, J., & Robinson,
E. (2007). Intellectual abilities and metacognitive beliefs influence
spontaneous use of effective encoding strategies.
Abstract
Intelligence is
strongly related to episodic memory. One explanation is that individuals
with greater processing capacity are more likely to use effective
strategies during encoding, but this hypothesis has not been empirically
tested. A sample of 335 participants (ages 26 – 83) completed measures
of cognitive abilities (e.g., inductive reasoning, processing speed,
working memory), memory beliefs, episodic memory (associative recall and
free recall), and strategic behavior on the memory tasks. For both
memory tasks, cognitive abilities predicted individual differences in
the spontaneous use of effective strategies (e.g., interactive imagery
for associative recall), which in turn accounted for individual
differences in memory performance. Nevertheless, strategy use only
partially mediated the strong ability-memory relationship and could not
explain age-related deficits in memory. Intellectual abilities influence
human memory, in part, by providing processing resources that can
support effective strategic behavior. Memory control beliefs and
metacognitive knowledge also have independent influences on strategy
use. Keywords: Intelligence, episodic memory, metacognition, strategy
use, control beliefs, aging.
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Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Soederberg Miller, L.M.,
& Hertzog, C. (2006). Aging and self-regulated language processing.
Psychological
Bulletin, 132(4),
582-606.
Abstract
An adult
developmental model of self-regulated language processing (SRLP) is
introduced, in which the allocation policy with which a reader engages
text is driven by declines in processing capacity, growth in
knowledge-based processes, and age-related shifts in reading goals.
Evidence is presented to show that the individual reader’s allocation
policy is consistent across time and across different types of text, can
serve a compensatory function in relation to abilities, and is
predictive of subsequent memory performance. As such, it is an important
facet of language understanding and learning from text through the adult
life span.
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Dunlosky, J., Hertzog, C., & Powell-Moman, A. (2005). The
contribution of mediator-based deficiencies to age-related differences in
associative learning. Developmental Psychology, 41 (2), 389-400.
Abstract
Production, mediational, and utilization deficiencies, describing how
different aspects of strategy use may contribute to developmental trends across the life-span, have been intensively
investigated. By employing the mediator report-and-retrieval method, we present evidence concerning the degree to
which two previously unexplored mediator-based deficits retrieval and decoding deficiencies account for age-related
declines in associative learning shown in later life. During study, older and younger adults were instructed to use a
particular strategy (either imagery or sentence generation) to associate words within each paired associate. After study,
they reported the mediator that had just been produced. During criterion recall, they attempted to retrieve each response
and the mediator produced at study. Age-related deficits were found in criterion recall. Most important, these differences
were associated with isolated effects in mediator-based deficiencies. Specifically, age differences were not evident in
the production of mediators or in the features of mediators produced, whereas substantial deficits were evident in mediator
retrieval and small, but reliable differences were observed in decoding mediators.
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Hertzog, C., & Dunlosky, J. (2004). Aging, metacognition, and
cognitive control. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), Psychology of Learning and
Motivation. San Diego: CA: Academic Press, 215-251.
Abstract
This chapter reviews our research program on strategy use during
associative learning. When learning unrelated paired-associates, such
as TICK-SPOON, individuals benefit tremendously from the use of
mediational strategies, such as forming a sentence using the two words,
or creating a visual image with tokens of the two words interacting.
Our research has examined individual differences in the instructed and
spontaneous use of mediational strategies. Our findings indicate that
age deficits in associative learning cannot be attributed to differences
in the production of effective mediators. Older adults produce
effective mediators, especially when informed about their existence, but
reap less benefit from their use. We have also shown that intellectual
abilities and metacognitive beliefs predict spontaneous strategy use in
adults of all ages.
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Robinson, A. E., & Hertzog, C. (2003). The role of strategies
and instructions in relational deductive reasoning. Proceeding of
the Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
Abstract
Deductive reasoning is often
seen as being composed of an immutable mechanism, universal to all
reasoning situations and consisting of either mental models (e.g.,
Johnson-Laird, 1983) or formal-rules (e.g., Rips, 1994). Many
researchers have questioned whether these positions are truly mutually
exclusive (e.g., Roberts, 1993, 2000). Most deductive reasoning research
has largely ignored the influence of instructions and strategies on the
reasoning process. The present experiment was conducted to investigate
reasoning strategies along with metacognitive measures of those
strategies. Instructions were given to use a particular strategy (e.g.,
spatial, verbal). Items were separated into two levels: simple and
complex, based on the amount of premises. Premise times, accuracy, and
strategy reports were collected. Instructions had an effect on
performance, as seen in premise times and accuracy. Also, strategy
reports indicated a distribution of strategies utilized by participants.
Strategy reports proved vital in corroborating differential patterns of
performance indicative of varied approaches to solving this task.
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Matvey, G., Dunlosky, J., Shaw, R., Parks, C., & Hertzog,
C. (2002). Age-related equivalence and deficit in knowledge updating
of cue effectiveness. Psychology and Aging, 17, 589-597.
Abstract
A critical metacognitive process is the updating
of knowledge about cue and strategy effectiveness based on task
experience. Prior research, using different methods and measures, has
yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding age-related effects on
knowledge updating. To resolve this inconsistency, we analyzed the
effects of aging on multiple measures of knowledge updating within a
single method. Older and younger adults studied cue-target associates
during two study-test trials. Cues ranged from less effective rhyme cues
to highly effective category cues. On each trial, different items were
presented, and participants predicted recall performance, received a
cued recall test, and postdicted recall performance. Knowledge updating
was operationalized as an improvement in predictive accuracy across
trials. An age-related deficits was evident in improvements in absolute
accuracy across trials, whereas age differences were negligible in
changes in relative accuracy across trials. Evidence from postdictions
suggested that deficient inferential processes contributed to the age
deficits in knowledge updating.
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Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (2001). Measuring strategy production
during associative learning: The relative utility of concurrent versus
retrospective reports. Memory & Cognition, 29, 247-253.
Abstract
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 were
or were not informed about 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 informing participants
about strategies did affect reported strategies for both age groups and
recall performance for older adults. A production deficiency constrained
older adults' recall when there were not informed about strategies prior
to study. Discussion focuses on the relative utility of concurrent and
retrospective reports of strategy production.
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Dunlosky, J. & Hertzog, C. (2000). Updating knowledge about encoding
strategies: A componential analysis of learning about strategy
effectiveness from task experience. Psychology and Aging, 15,
462-474.
Abstract
Researchers have argued for age deficits in
learning about the relative 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 about encoding strategies. Forty older
adults and 40 younger adults participated in two study-test trials in
which they studied paired associates with either interactive imagery or
rote repetition, predicted subsequent recall for the items, attempted to
recall each item, and postdicted recall performance. Recall was greater
for imagery than repetition, yet this effect was not fully reflected by
predictions made on Trial 1, allowing for the possibility of knowledge
updating about the strategies on Trial 2. Although, both older and
younger adults accurately postdicted recall performance during Trial 1,
absolute accuracy of the predictions made on Trial 2 showed little
improvement. However, both age groups demonstrated increases in
between-person correlations of predictions with recall, which is
consistent with age deficits in knowledge updating. Thus, both younger
and older adults had updated knowledge about the strategies form task
experience, but such updating was not evident in the absolute accuracy
of the predictions.
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McGuire, C. L., Hertzog, C., & Colson, K. F. (2001). Age
differences in performance and strategy use on a free recall
task. Unpublished manuscript.
Abstract
After an oral free recall task, younger and older
adults answered questions about the memory task in a semi-structured
oral interview. Self-reported strategies were coded and classified into
ranked categories (Optimal, Marginal, Low), with the Optimal category
including normatively effective relational encoding strategies. Younger
adults reported using more strategies, and these strategies were rated
as more effective, on average, than those used by older adults. Use of
optimal strategies use predicted recall in both age groups, but robust
age differences remained after controlling for strategy use. Strategy
use was not reliably correlated with metacognitive beliefs, including
implicit theories about aging and memory decline, memory self-concept,
perceived control over memory functioning, or performance predictions.
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Hertzog, C., McGuire, C. L., & Lineweaver, T. T. (1998).
Aging, attributions, perceived control, and strategy use in a free
recall task. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 5, 85-106.
Abstract
A cross-sectional sample of adults answered two
questionnaires regarding beliefs about memory, took a free recall test,
and then answered two open-ended questions obtaining causal attributions
for memory task performance. Adults of all ages most frequently
attributed memory performance to internal skills (typically, strategies
for learning and remembering), although older adults were more likely
than younger adults to make internal-ability attributions. Self-reported
strategies were classified into three ranked categories: (a) optimal
(some form of relational processing), (b) marginal (e.g., rote
rehearsal), or (c) none (e.g., nonspecific effort). Use of optimal
strategies was positively related to recall performance and perceived
control over memory for persons of all ages. Age differences in use of
strategies were small and did not account for age differences in memory
performance.
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Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (1998). Aging and deficits in
associative memory: What is the role of strategy use? Psychology and
Aging, 13, 597-607.
Abstract
A new method was developed to investigate the
degree to which age differences in strategy production mediate age
differences 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) compiled 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.
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