Metacognition

2nd flashcard of exam 3

Metacognition

Knowledge and control of cognitive processes.

• It involves awareness of one's own thought processes, enabling effective self-regulation and learning strategies

Tip-of-the-Tongue Effect

• A cognitive phenomenon where an individual cannot recall a specific word or name but feels they are close to retrieving it.

  • Subjective experience of knowing the target word but being currently unable to access it.

  • This sensation is involuntary.

  • Individuals in a _____ state can sometimes provide hints about the target word:

    • Initial letter of the word

    • Number of syllables

    • Suggest related words that are not the target.

tip-of-the-finger effect

A phenomenon similar to TOT, experienced by individuals who use sign language, where a person knows a sign but cannot access it temporarily.

Feeling-of-Knowing Effect

The subjective experience where a person feels they know some information but cannot currently recall it.

• A strong _____ occurs when other related information is retrievable.

• Example Scenario: Forgetting a grocery list and then recalling items by going through each aisle in the store.

Illusion of Explanatory Depth

The false impression that an individual has a deeper understanding of a complex system or phenomenon than they actually do.

• Examples:

  • Understanding of how a zipper functions.

  • Understanding of how a cellular phone operates.

  • Understanding of the mechanism in a photocopier for copying documents.

  • Understanding of how a ball-point pen writes.

Déjà Vu

A peculiar metacognitive illusion where individuals feel they have already experienced the current situation before.

• Characterized by feelings of familiarity, eeriness, intensity, and sometimes spiritual sensations.

Factors Affecting Metamemory Estimates

Estimating Total vs. Item Accuracy:

• Accuracy is generally more reliable when predicting individual items than overall accuracy.

  • item accuracy > overall accuracy

Estimating Immediately vs. After a Delay:

• Individuals tend to be less accurate when providing immediate estimates compared to estimates made after a delay.

  • delayed estimate accuracy > immediate estimate accuracy

Influences on Metamemory Estimates

• Experience-based Cues: Reliance on personal experiences to assess memory recall.

• Fluency – If information is readily retrievable, individuals might overestimate future recall ease.

• Knowledge- or Belief-based Cues: Personal beliefs regarding one's own abilities and understanding of memory functionalities.

  • Example: Participants might believe that rehearsal as a study strategy is fully effective, despite evidence suggesting otherwise 

Fluency

The effortless processing of information.

• If information is readily retrievable, individuals might overestimate future recall ease.

• Tasks are judged as easier when the answer is available

  • Experiment Example: Anagrams with available answers (e.g., FSCAR -> SCARF) demonstrate a tendency to overestimate solution ease.

_____ in Ratings of Others

• Example Study (Newton, 1990):

  • Participants in roles of “tapper” or “listener” guessing songs facilitated comprehension tasks. Tappers believed listeners would guess approximately 50% of the time, whereas actual accuracy was only 2.5%.

Production effect

words spoken aloud are better remembered than words read silently

Metamemory

A form of metacognition that focuses specifically on memory and how one reflects on their memory capabilities.

• _____ is Often Wrong

  • Individuals frequently hold misconceptions about memory strategies, which can distort study effectiveness:

    • They consider rehearsal an effective study strategy without adequate empirical backing 

    • They may believe that various memory strategies yield equivalent levels of success 

    • They assume learning performance benefits from presentations that are merely easier to perceive

  • measured using judgements of learning (JOLs)

Metacomprehension

A person's ability to assess their own understanding and learning from a text

• method — Participants typically read a text of at least 200 words.

• They will then estimate their performance on a subsequent comprehension test, often in terms of the percentage of correct answers.

• Participant then proceeds to take the test

• Two accuracy types assessed:

  • Relative Accuracy: Correlation between judgments and actual performance.

  • Absolute Accuracy: Comparison of mean predicted vs. mean actual correct answers (underconfidence vs. overconfidence).

Relative Accuracy

Correlation between judgments and actual performance.

Absolute Accuracy

Comparison of mean predicted vs. mean actual correct answers.

Enhancing Metacomprehension

Rereading: Engaging in additional readings generally improves _____, though benefits may stem from better understanding rather than just repeated exposure.

Summarizing: Writing summaries of texts helps boost _____, only when when summaries are created after a delay. A way to enhance _____.

• The summaries do not need to be complete (ex: keywords); generating key terms achieves beneficial effects, particularly when after a delay.

self-awareness

Involves understanding and recognizing oneself.

• Assessment Methods: The mirror test is used to test self-recognition in both infants and some non-human animals.

• Results:

  • Human infants show reliable self-recognition by approximately 18 months old.

  • Animals that have successfully passed the mirror test include:

    • Bottlenose dolphins

    • Orcas

    • Great apes (Bonobos, gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans)

    • Certain elephants

    • Specific species of birds (magpies, some pigeons)

    • Manta rays.

Judgments of Learning

refer to the predictions individuals make about their future memory performance after studying specific information. These assessments help learners gauge how well they have learned material and influence their study strategies and time allocation.