Abstract
An experiment was done to determine whether retrieval practice improved judgment-of-learning (JOL) accuracy when degree of learning was controlled. Fifty undergraduate students were asked to learn a long list of unrelated facts, with critical items presented either once or four times. The repetitions of critical items were retrieval prompts for half of the subjects (study-test) and additional study presentations (study-only) for the other half of the subjects. The subjects made JOL ratings after the last occurrence of critical items. Immediately after the study list, they were given a cued-recall test. Recall was comparable for once-presented items and repeated items across the two groups, but JOL accuracy was higher for repeated items in the study-test group. These results confirm that retrieval practice enhances JOL accuracy even when degree of learning is controlled.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arbuckle, T. Y., & Cuddy, L. L. (1969). Discrimination of item strength at time of presentation. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 81, 126–131.
Begg, I., Duft, S., LaLonde, P., Melnick, R., & SanvIto, J. (1989). Memory predictions are based on ease of processing. Journal of Memory & Language, 28, 610–632.
Cohen, R. L. (1988). Metamemory for words and enacted instructions: Predicting which items will be recalled. Memory & Cognition, 16, 452–460.
Gardiner, J. M., & Klee, H. (1976). Memory for remembered events: An assessment of output monitoring in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 15, 227–233.
Glenberg, A. M., Wilkinson, A. C., & Epstein, W. (1982). The illusion of knowing: Failure in the self-assessment of comprehension. Memory & Cognition, 10, 597–602.
Groninger, L. M. (1979). Predicting recall: The “feeling-that-I-will-know” phenomenon. American Journal of Psychology, 92, 45–58.
Hart, J. T. (1965). Memory and the feeling-of-knowing experience. Journal of Educational Psychology, 56, 208–216.
King, J. F., Zechmeister, E. B., &; Shaughnessy, J. J. (1980). Judgments of knowing: The influence of retrieval practice. American Journal of Psychology, 93, 329–343.
Landauer, T. K., & Bjork, R. A. (1978). Optimum rehearsal patterns and name learning. In M. M. Gruneberg & R. N. Sykes (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory (pp. 625–632). New York: Academic Press.
Leonesio, R. J., & Nelson, T. O. (1990). Do different metamemory judgments tap the same underlying aspects of memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 464–470.
Lovelace, E. A. (1984). Metamemory: Monitoring future recallability during study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 10, 756–766.
Maki, R. H., Foley, J. M., Kajer, W. K., Thompson, R. C., & Willert, M. G. (1990). Increased processing enhances calibration of comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 609–616.
Nelson, T. O. (1984). A comparison of current measures of the accuracy of feeling-of-knowing predictions. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 109–133.
Nelson, T. O., & Dunlosky, J. (1991). When people’s judgments of learning (JOLs) are extremely accurate at predicting subsequent recall: The delayed JOL effect. Psychological Science, 2, 267–270.
Nelson, T. O., & Leonesio, R. J. (1988). Allocation of self-paced study time and the “labor-in-vain effect.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 14, 676–686.
Nelson, T. O., Leonesio, R. J., Shimamura, A. P., Landwehr, R. F., & Narens, L. (1982). Overlearning and the feeling of knowing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 8, 279–288.
Nelson, T. O., & Narens, L. (1990). Metamemory: A theoretical framework and some new findings. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 26, pp. 125–173). San Diego: Academic Press.
Shaughnessy, J. J. (1981). Memory monitoring accuracy and modification of rehearsal strategies. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 20, 216–230.
Tulving, E., & Madigan, S. A. (1970). Memory and verbal learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 21, 437–484.
Underwood, B. J. (1966). Individual and group predictions of item difficulty for free learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 673–679.
Zechmeister, E. B., & Shaughnessy, J. J. (1980). When you know that you know and when you think that you know but you don’t. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 15, 41–44.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The present experiment is a better controlled version of a similar experiment we reported in a paper presented at the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in November 1979. The present experiment involved more lists so that a greater variety of facts were tested in each list function. Completion of this research project was facilitated by a Hope College faculty development grant made possible by the Matthew J. and Anne C. Wilson Foundation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shaughnessy, J.J., Zechmeister, E.B. Memory-monitoring accuracy as influenced by the distribution of retrieval practice. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 30, 125–128 (1992). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330416
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330416