Using Participant Choice to Enhance Memory Performance

When patients are involved in deciding the course of treatment for their ailment and are given a chance to choose between different treatment options, the success of the intervention typically increases. In our study we transferred this approach to a cognitive psychology task and investigated whether treatment choice can enhance participants' memory performance. Participants who were free to choose one out of a selection of alleged cognitive enhancers showed better performance than those who were assigned an enhancer. We also found that performance‐expectations have a stronger impact when triggered prior to the encoding as opposed to the retrieval stage and thus appear to be more effective at a point when participants exercise a greater degree of cognitive control. The findings are of relevance in contexts where it can be assumed that participants have knowledge about their own needs and can in turn capitalize on this knowledge when given the opportunity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.