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Hertzog, C., Kidder, D. P., Powell-Moman, A. & Dunlosky, J. (2002). Aging and monitoring associative learning: Is monitoring accuracy spared or impaired?  Psychology and Aging, 17, 209-225.

Abstract

Mixed lists of associatively related and unrelated paired-associates were used to study monitoring of associative learning. Older and younger adults produced above-chance levels of relative accuracy, as measured by intraindividual correlations of JOLs with item recall. JOLs were strongly influenced by relatedness, and this effect was greater for older adults. Relative accuracy was higher for unrelated than for related pairs. Correlations of JOLs with item recall for a randomly yoked learner indicated that access to one’s own encoding experiences increased relative accuracy. Older adults showed equivalent privileged access when using continuous (but not discrete) JOL rating scales. Both age groups manifested a contrast effect (lower JOLs for unrelated items when mixed with related items). Aging appears to spare monitoring of encoding, even though it adversely affects associative learning.

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Dunlosky, J. & Hertzog, C. (2000).  Updating knowledge about strategy effectiveness: 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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Hertzog, C., Park, D. C., Morrell, R. W., & Martin, M. (2000). Behavioral specificity in the accuracy of subjective memory complaints.  Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14, 257-275.

Abstract

A cross-sectional sample of adults completed an extensive set of cognitive tasks and a set of questionnaires measuring depressive affect, memory complaint, and other variables. During an interview about their prescribed medications, the participants also reported whether they were having problems remembering to take the medication as prescribed (an everyday prospective memory problem). Their medication adherence at home was then monitored for one month using pill bottles with microelectronic caps. Cognitive tasks correlated with memory complaints, as measured by the Memory Functioning Questionnaire, but not with problems in remembering to take medications. The highest correlations were with a free recall task. Conversely, reported problems with medication adherence during the interview had good predictive validity for subsequent adherence problems, but not for cognitive tasks, including a measure of prospective memory. Depressive affect was related to both the questionnaire and the interview complaints about medication adherence, but a structural equation model showed that the relationships of cognition and medication adherence to the different memory complaints were independent of depressive affect. The results are interpreted in terms of a behavioral specificity hypothesis, which states that adults’self-reports of memory problems are valid when they focus directly on specific memory-related behaviors in everyday contexts.

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Dunlosky, J. T., & Hertzog, C. (1998).  Training programs to improve learning in later adulthood: Helping older adults educate themselves.  In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), Metacognition in educational theory and practice (pp. 249-275). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Abstract

We review findings in the literature regarding aging and metacognitive monitoring, strategy use, and learning. The central thesis is that aging does not impair the ability to monitor ongoing learning, even though it has an adverse impact on learning itself. Given that older adults are able to monitor their learning, the argument developed in this chapter is that they can potentially benefit from the strategic use of monitoring to control or regulate their learning. This involves the use of self-testing as a metacognitively oriented strategy -- actually testing one's learning and then adjusting learning strategies based on the self-testing. Existing training programs for older adults have focused almost exclusively on strategy training, with or without cognitive restructuring of dysfunctional beliefs about the nature of aging and its effects on memory. We argue that existing training programs should be expanded to included metacognitive training, so that older adults are encouraged to monitor the effectiveness of strategies by self-testing, and to then adapt their strategic behavior (for example, by allocating more time and effort to study the information they have not yet mastered).

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Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (1997).  Older and younger adults use a functionally identical algorithm to select items for restudy during multi-trial learning.  Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 52, 178-186.

Abstract

We investigated whether aging affects several components of how people select items for study during multitrial learning. Younger and older adults studied paired-associate items and then made delayed judgments of learning (JOLs). Immediately after making a JOL for an item, some participants decided whether to restudy the item on subsequent trials; for other participants, the computer selected for restudy the items that had been judged as least-well learned. Next, paired-associate recall occurred, which was followed by restudy-test trials. As expected, age differences occurred in recall on the first trial, and this difference was propagated across trials. In contrast to the hypothesis that older adults would be more conservative in selecting items, both age groups selected to restudy (a) the items that they had rated as least-well learned and (b) the majority of items that would not be recalled on the first trial. Comparisons between participants who self-selected items vs. the groups in which the computer controlled selection also converged on the conclusion of age equivalence in processes underlying item selection.

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Connor, L. T., Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (1997).  Age-related differences in absolute but not relative metamemory accuracy.  Psychology and Aging, 12, 50-71.

Abstract

In 3 experiments, the effects of age on different kinds of metacognitive prediction accuracy were assessed. Participants made global memory predictions and item-by-item memory predictions in a single experimental task. Metacognitive accuracy was evaluated with correlational and more traditional difference-score measures. Difference-score measures were found, in some cases, to be sensitive to level of recall performance. Correlational techniques revealed that older adults monitored learning effectively. Relative to younger adults, they showed equally accurate immediate judgments of learning (JOLs), produced an equivalent delayed-JOL effect, and showed equivalent upgrading in the accuracy of their global prediction from before to after study of test materials.

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Hertzog, C., Saylor, L. L., Fleece, A. M., & Dixon, R. A. (1994).  Metamemory and aging: Relations between predicted, actual, and perceived memory task performance.  Aging and Cognition, 1, 203-237.

Abstract

Four experiments examined adult age differences in predictions and postdictions of memory task performance. The results support the conceptualization of performance predictions as constructed judgments that tare influenced by a number of factors, including memory self-efficacy and task appraisal processes. Prediction accuracy varied as a function of the type of task (recall better than recognition), subject age (better accuracy by old adults), and task experience (improvement over trials). Prediction accuracy appeared to be influenced by inferences about possible levels of task performance. Different age groups were equally accurate at postdicting performance. Three of the four experiments obtained predictions both before and after study, observing an increase in the correlations of predictions with recall after study. This upgrading effect was more pronounced for younger adults relative to older adults, possibly indicating poorer monitoring of learning or the contents of memory by older adults during the construction of the after-study prediction.

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Hertzog, C., Dixon, R. A., & Hultsch, D. F. (1990).  Relationships between metamemory, memory predictions, and memory task performance in adults.  Psychology and Aging, 5, 215-227.

Abstract

A cross-sectional sample of adults recalled categorized word lists and narrative texts. Subjects gave performance predictions before each of 3 recall trials for each task. Older subjects had poorer memory performance and also predicted lower performance levels than did younger subjects. The LISREL models suggested (a) direct effects of memory self-efficacy (MSE) on initial predictions; (b) upgrading of prediction-performance correlations across trials, determined by direct effects of performance on subsequent predictions; (c) significant effects of a higher order verbal memory factor on MSE; and (d) an independent relationship of text recall ability to initial text recall performance predictions. These results lend support to the theoretical treatment of predictions as task-specific MSE judgments.