Memory Strategies and Metacognition

Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 6 Page 1 of 11

CHAPTER 6 Memory Strategies and Metacognition

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION  Schools don't spend much time teaching how to improve memory.  Teachers sometimes recommend study strategies that conflict with what we know about human memory. metacognition—your knowledge about and control of your cognitive processes ecological validity MEMORY STRATEGIES memory strategy Suggestions from Previous Chapters: A Review divided attention limits of working memory Levels of Processing  use deep processing emphasizing elaboration and distinctiveness rather than simple rehearsal  use "why questions"  deep processing and psychology courses  using distinctiveness to learn names  self-reference effect Encoding Specificity Study strategies should consider how the information will be tested.

Suggestions from Previous Chapters: A Review (continued) Avoiding Overconfidence Beware of possible overconfidence in your own memory skills. foresight bias Strategies Emphasizing Practice The Total-Time Hypothesis  The amount you learn depends on the total time you devote to learning.  Study time predicts GPA only when quality of study strategies are also taken into account. The Retrieval-Practice Effect Try to recall important concepts from memory; if retrieval is difficult—and you succeed—your learning is enhanced. The Distributed-Practice Effect  You will remember more material if you spread your learning trials over time (spaced vs. massed learning).  desirable difficulties The Testing Effect Taking a test is actually an excellent way to boost your long-term recall for academic material. Roediger and Karpicke (2006)  students read essays, testing immediately or after delay, repeated study or intervening test  testing provides practice in retrieving the relevant material  produces desirable difficulties, prevents overconfidence Mnemonics Using Imagery mnemonics mental imagery Bower and Winzenz (1970)  word pairs, interactive visual imagery vs. repetition keyword method useful for unfamiliar vocabulary and learning names foreign language vocabulary  identify an English word (keyword) that sounds similar to the new word you want to learn  create an image that links the keyword with the meaning of the new word

Mnemonics Using Imagery (continued) familiar locations method  associate the items to be learned with a series of visual images of physical locations  useful for learning a list of items in a specific order Mnemonics Using Organization Chunking  combine several small units into larger meaningful units Hierarchy Technique  organize items in a series of classes from general to specific  Bower and colleagues (1969)—learn words arranged in hierarchy vs. random structure  outlines First-Letter Technique  compose a word or sentence using the first letters of the words you are trying to remember (e.g., ROY G. BIV)  effectiveness not consistently demonstrated by research Narrative Technique  make up stories that link a series of words together  Bower and Clark (1969)  need to be able to generate a narrative easily and reliably during both learning and recall Summary  Strategies only work if you apply them!  Most students wait until just before the exam; don't use all available resources.  Students' study habits, study skills, and study attitudes are strong predictors of grades in college.

In Depth: Prospective Memory retrospective memory  remembering information you acquired in the past prospective memory  remembering that you need to do something in the future  requires remembering that you need to do something AND remembering the content of what you need to do Comparing Prospective and Retrospective Memory  Prospective memory typically focuses on action.  Retrospective memory is more likely to focus on remembering information and ideas.  Both will be more accurate if you use both distinctive encoding and effective retrieval cues.  Both kinds of memory are more accurate when you have a short delay prior to retrieval.  Both rely on the frontal lobe. Absentmindedness and Prospective-Memory Failures  divided attention  disrupting a customary activity  familiar surroundings and automatic tasks  preoccupation, distraction, time pressure Suggestions for Improving Prospective Memory  mental imagery  distinctiveness  avoid overconfidence  use external memory aids  placement of external memory aids  External memory aids are helpful only if you can use them easily and if they successfully remind you of what you are supposed to remember.

Summary Table of Memory-Improvement Strategies [Table 6.1] 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 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.

METACOGNITION metacognition  your knowledge and control of your cognitive processes  supervises the way you select and use your memory strategies  includes self-knowledge, metamemory, metacomprehension Five Questions to be Examined (Preview) 1. What factors influence people’s metamemory accuracy? 2. How do people with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder perform on metamemory tasks? 3. What are people’s beliefs about factors that might influence their memory? 4. What do people know about how to regulate their study strategies? 5. How accurate are people in judging whether they will be able to recall a specific word? Factors that Influence People's Metamemory Accuracy If you are confident about your performance on some memory task, is your memory indeed accurate? Metamemory: Estimating the Accuracy for Total Score Versus the Accuracy for Individual Items  In general, 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. foresight bias—when people overestimate the number of answers that they will supply on a future test Studying with the correct responses visible can lead to overly optimistic estimates. Dunning and coauthors (2003)  estimate of total score after finishing exam  less competent students overestimated performance Metamemory can be highly accurate when people predict which individual items they'll remember and which ones they'll forget.

Factors that Influence People's Metamemory Accuracy (continued) Metamemory: 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.  Delayed judgments are especially likely to provide accurate assessments of memory performance because they assess long- term memory. Metamemory: Estimating the Scores on Essay Questions Versus Multiple-Choice Questions Students are generally more accurate in estimating their scores on multiple-choice questions than on essay questions. Individual Differences: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Metamemory People with ADHD have difficulty paying close attention at school, at work, and in other activities. Do people with ADHD have difficulty with metamemory tasks? Knouse and coauthors (2006)—metamemory item-by-item  word pairs, estimate likelihood of recall, immediate vs. delayed estimate, ADHD and non-ADHD  calibration—a measure of people's accuracy in estimating their future performance  For immediate judgments, people with and without ADHD did not differ in accuracy; both groups were reasonably accurate in predicting future recall.  Also no group differences after delay; both groups were even more accurate in predicting future recall.  People with ADHD can be highly accurate in estimating their performance on an item-by-item basis.

Metamemory About Factors Affecting Memory Accuracy Many students lack knowledge of memory strategies. "All memory strategies are not created equal." Students may believe that some factors do have an effect on memory, although these factors actually do not have an effect. Metamemory and the Regulation of Study Strategies  coordinate memory and decision making  remember to spend more time on difficult material Allocating Time When the Task is Easy Nelson and Leonesio (1988)  examined how students distribute their study time when they can study at their own pace  Students allocated more study time for the items that they believed would be difficult to master.  Students spend longer than necessary studying items they already know, and not enough time studying the items they have not yet mastered. Son and Metcalfe (2000)—Students spend more time on difficult items in studies examining relatively easy material like learning pairs of words. Allocating Time When the Task is Difficult  conceptual information  limited study time Son and Metcalfe (2000)  test material—a series of eight encyclopedia-style biographies  time pressure—only 30 minutes to study  rank the biographies in terms of difficulty  Students spent the majority of their study time on the biographies they considered easy, rather than those they considered difficult. Other studies also indicated that when facing time pressure, students choose to study material that seems relatively easy to master. Experts concentrate their time on more challenging material, compared to novices. Conclusions About the Regulation of Study Strategies  Students can regulate their study strategies in a sophisticated fashion.  They can even regulate the regulation of study strategies!

Metamemory and the Likelihood of Remembering a Specific Target 1. The tip-of-the-tongue effect—subjective experience of knowing the target word for which you are searching, but cannot recall it right now; generally an involuntary effect 2. The feeling-of-knowing effect—subjective experience of knowing some information, but cannot recall it right now; more conscious experience The Tip-of-the-Tongue Effect Brown and McNeill (1966)  given the definition of an uncommon English word, try to identify the word  when the definition produced a tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, try to generate words with similar sound  Similar sounding words did indeed resemble the target words in terms of first-letter and/or other attributes like number of syllables. Later Research  frequency of occurrence  bilinguals vs. monolinguals  first letter and number of syllables; grammatical gender  tip-of-the-finger effect  accompanied by nonverbal behaviors (e.g., exaggerated facial expression, foot movements); an example of embodied cognition (thoughts expressed as motor behavior) The Feeling-of-Knowing Effect  predicting whether you could correctly recognize the correct answer to a question  related to the amount of partial information retrieved

Metacomprehension metacomprehension—thoughts about language comprehension Metacomprehension Accuracy College students  are not very accurate in metacomprehension skills  may not notice inconsistencies or missing information in a passage  believe they have understood something because they are familiar with its general topic  fail to retain specific information  overestimate how they will perform when tested Pressley and Ghatala (1988)  reading comprehension using SAT; essay followed by multiple-choice questions  students rated how certain they were that they had answered each question correctly  little difference between estimates on correct and incorrect items  students believed that they understood the material, even when they answered the questions incorrectly Irrelevant features (e.g., photos) may lead students to overestimate their understanding of a textbook passage. Metacomprehension accuracy and reading comprehension scores are significantly correlated. Improving Metacomprehension read and summarize reading strategies  make connections  use imagery  outline  summarize in your own words  read a second time

Assessing Your Metacomprehension Skills [Demo 6.5] Answer each of the following questions about your own metacomprehension. If you answer ‘‘no’’ to any question, devise a plan for improving metacomprehension, and apply this plan when you read the next assigned chapter in this textbook.

1. Before beginning to read an assignment, do you try to assess how carefully you should read the material? 2. In general, are you accurate in predicting your performance on the exam questions that focus on the reading assignments? 3. After you read a short section (roughly a page in length), do you make yourself summarize what you have just read—using your own words? 4. After reading a chapter in this textbook, do you test yourself on the list of new terms and on the review questions? 5. Do you re-read a portion of your textbook when it doesn’t make sense or when you realize that you haven’t been paying attention? 6. Do you try to draw connections among the ideas in your textbook? 7. Do you try to draw connections between the ideas in your textbook and the information you have learned in class? 8. When you read a term you do not know, do you try to determine its meaning by looking it up in a dictionary or in the glossary of your textbook? 9. When you review your textbook prior to a test, do you spend more time reviewing the topics that you consider difficult, compared to the topics that you have already mastered? 10. When reading through several journal articles to see whether they might be relevant for a paper you are writing, do you first try to assess —without reading every word—the general scope or findings of each article?