Cognitive Psychology Class Notes: Metacognition

Definition of Metacognition:

"knowing about knowing"
knowledge and awareness of your own cognitive processes, how they function, when it's likely to falter, etc.

I don't recall

I understood this fairly well

I won't be able to solve this problem right away

I can't study with the TV on

Her name is on the tip of my tongue

Metacognitive Awareness and Monitoring:

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

3 Types of Prospective Monitoring Judgments:

Ease-of-learning (EOL) judgments

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

Judgments of learning (JOL)

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

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

Research in Metacognition:

Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) Phenomenon

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 searchthus, 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

Metacognition and Alcohol Intoxication

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

Metacognition and College Learning

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)

Cognitive Psychology Class Notes > Metacognition