Metacognition

• “knowing about knowing”
• knowledge and awareness of your own cognitive processes, how they function, when it’s likely to falter, etc.

• retrospective monitoring
• judgments about what was previously retrieved from memory
• e.g. confidence judgments
• prospective monitoring
• predictive about information available or to be retrieved from memory
• judgments about future responding

1. Ease-of-learning (EOL) judgments

• occur in advance of acquisition
• predictions about what info and strategies will be the easiest to learn

1. Judgments of learning (JOL)

• occur during or after acquisition
• predictions about future test performance on currently recallable items

1. Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments

• occur during or after acquisition
• judgments about a currently unrecallable item is known and/or will be remembered on a later memory test
• for incorrectly or non-recalled items, FOK judgments are obtained by asking how likely Ss are to be able to identify the answer on a recognition test

• Definition of TOT state:
• information is available but not accessible from memory
• usually parts of the information is accessible, but not enough to warrant a response
• associated with FOK

• Methods:
• naming rare words from definitions (e.g. Brown & McNeill, 1966)
• naming famous people from pictures
• answering trivia questions

• Results:
• TOT levels are fairly low (BUT STILL OCCUR)
• often recall the first letter and the number of syllables of the target when reporting a TOT state
• names of famous people, acquaintances, and famous landmarks are especially susceptible to TOT states

• What causes TOT states?
• retrieval blocking:
• activation of items in memory that are similar to the target (called “interlopers”) compete with the target during a memory search
• thus, the retrieval of the target is suppressed
• related words serve to block retrieval
• incomplete activation:
• an initial memory cue may not activate a target word or name enough for retrieval of target
• related words facilitate eventual retrieval

• How are TOT states resolved?
• more resolutions occur when Ss varied their search strategies, rather than sticking to a single strategy
• phonological cues, such as initials of famous names (Brennen et al., 1990) help to narrow search and resolve TOT state

• Do TOT reports predict imminent recall?
• immediate resolution:
• 40-50% of reported TOTs are resolved within a few minutes (Brown, 1991)
• associated with incomplete activation
• delayed resolution:
• 50-60% were NOT resolved in a short time (Brown, 1991)
• associated with retrieval blocking
• incubation effect......

Metacognition and Mount Everest (Nelson et al., 1990)

• assessed memory for factual information (“What is the capital of Finland?”)
• assessed FOK judgments for unanswered or incorrect responses
• tested at varying levels of elevation:
• Katmandu (1,200 m)
• Basecamp (5,400 m)
• Camp 2 (6,500 m)
• Camp 3 (7,100 m)
• Basecamp (5,400 m)
• Katmandu (1,200 m)
• Results:
• memory retrieval was unimpaired
• ratings of FOK decreased, and remained low 1 week after returning to Katmandu
• Conclusions
• climbers at extreme altitudes become less confident in their future performance and decision-making
• direct and long-lasting effect of hypoxia on brain mechanisms
• similar results with individuals on diazepam (Valium)
• should take these findings into account when psychologically treating someone on Valium

• Results:
• memory retrieval is impaired
• FOK judgments are unimpaired
• Conclusions:
• based on Nelson et al. (1990), hypoxia DOES NOT resemble overindulgence in alcohol as previously believed

Metacognition and Depressed Children (Lauer et al., 1994)

• Method:
• frequency of occurrence task (with pictures)
• Metamemory Battery (Belmont & Borkowski, 1988)
• examines a child’s metamnemonic knowledge and ability
• Results:
• both depressed and nondepressed children performed equally well on memory task
• depressed children (aged 9-12 yrs) overestimated their memory abilities
• Conclusions:
• overestimation may be an attempt to compensate for feelings of inadequacy produced by overly critical thought processes
• overestimation may be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy, where depressives overestimate their abilities, consistently falling short of their expectations and thus finding more evidence that they are failures -- tend to set themselves up for failure by being unrealistic about their abilities
• targeting such cognitive distortions can be a focal point of cognitive therapy for depression

• most students tend to OVERESTIMATE their knowledge of the course materials
• students with lower grades tend to overestimate their knowledge more than students with higher grades
• SO WHAT’S THE LESSON HERE??
• use stricter criteria for deciding that you “know” the material
• You probably do NOT know the material if you cannot:
• explain a theory, concept, or experiment to someone else
• answer all the chapter review questions (without looking back)
• define all the “new terms” at the end of each chapter (without looking back)