Monitoring processes and metamemory experience in patients with dysexecutive syndrome

The aim of the present study was to determine whether monitoring measures are differentially disturbed in dysexecutive patients after frontal lesions. Twelve dysexecutive patients and 12 healthy controls were administered a paired-associates learning task. Their performances on recall prediction, judgment-of-learning (JOL), and feeling-of-knowing judgment (FOK) were then compared. The results revealed that the two groups differed only on accuracy measures of the FOK paradigm. The study of the overall correlations between the three measures of metamemory revealed a significant relation between recall prediction and accuracy measures of the JOL. We failed to find any significant correlation with the accuracy measures of the FOK. Taken together, our data confirm that metamemory experience is not a unitary construct but rather a group of distinct and quite independent mechanisms.     

Are you sure you forgot? Feeling of knowing in directed forgetting.

One significant issue in metamemory is how variables increasing memorability affect metamemory. Previous research has produced inconsistent results. The effect of directed forgetting on the magnitude and accuracy of feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments was investigated. Participants were presented with word pairs, some to be remembered and some to be forgotten, and then were asked to recall all target words regardless of initial instructions. For unrecalled items, they were asked to give FOK judgments about performance in a future memory task: a cued stem-completion task (Experiment 1) or a recognition test (Experiment 2). This encoding manipulation increased both the memory performance and the magnitude of FOK judgments. However, no such effect on the accuracy of FOK judgments was observed.     

Memory and metamemory for semantic information in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Several studies have been conducted on OCD patients' memory and metamemory performance in episodic tasks. However, there is a clear lack of research addressing these issues for semantic memory (i.e., retrieval of information from long-term memory). Although findings regarding a memory deficit is somewhat equivocal, the empirical evidence clearly demonstrates that OCD patients with primarily checking compulsions show reduced confidence in their memory performance. The purpose of the present study was to investigate memory and metamemory performance of checkers in semantic memory domain. We compared checker OCD patients, non-checker OCD patients and normal controls on their ability to retrieve answers to general knowledge questions with a recall as well as a recognition test. We also investigated prospective (feeling-of-knowing (FOK)) and retrospective (confidence) metamemory judgments. Checker OCs were not poorer in retrieving semantic information from long-term memory. Neither were they less confident about their ability to remember currently unrecallable information in the future (FOK judgments) or about the accuracy of retrieved information (confidence judgments). Moreover, accuracy of metamemory judgments were comparable across groups. Overall, our results revealed that checker OCs do not show a memory or metamemory deficit when semantic memory was concerned, suggesting that any memory and metamemory deficit may be special to recently experienced materials.     

Divided attention at encoding: Effect on feeling-of-knowing

This research investigated the effect of divided attention at encoding on feeling-of-knowing (FOK). Participants had to learn a 60 word-pair list under two experimental conditions, one with full attention (FA) and one with divided attention (DA). After that, they were administered episodic FOK tasks with a cued-recall phase, a FOK phase and a recognition phase. Our results showed that DA at encoding altered not only memory performance, but also FOK judgments and FOK accuracy. These findings throw some light on the central role of the quality of memory encoding to make accurate FOK judgments and provide new evidence supporting the relationship between memory and metamemory judgments.     

高强迫症状个体的定向遗忘和元记忆

将定向遗忘和FOK判断的范式相结合,探讨高强迫症状被试（HOC）和低强迫症状的控制组（LOC）在不同词语类型的条件下,线索回忆和元记忆判断的定向遗忘效应的差异。实验结果表明,HOC组在中性词语条件下比LOC组表现出更低的定向遗忘效应。FOK的结果表明HOC被试对于不同条件的元记忆的分辨能力比LOC组要差,他们在威胁性词语方面,对未来记忆任务的成绩也没有预测性。研究结果从一定程度上支持强迫症的一般记忆损伤模型     

Effects of self-referencing on feeling-of-knowing accuracy and recollective experience

The current research investigated the impact of self-referencing (SR) on feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgements to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these metamemory judgements and specifically test the relationship between recollective experiences and FOK accuracy within the accessibility framework FOK judgements are thought to be by-products of the retrieval process and are therefore closely related to memory performance. Because relating information to one's self is one of the factors enhancing memory performance, we investigated the effect of self-related encoding on FOK accuracy and recollective experience. We compared performance on this condition to a separate deep processing condition in which participants reported the frequency of occurrence of pairs of words. Participants encoded pairs of words incidentally, and following a delay interval, they attempted at retrieving each target prompted by its cue. Then, they were re-presented with all cues and asked to provide FOK ratings regarding their likelihood of recognising the targets amongst distractors. Finally, they were given a surprise recognition task in which following each response they identified whether the response was remembered, known or just guessed. Our results showed that only SR at encoding resulted in better memory, higher FOK accuracy and increased recollective experience.     

Consciousness in Schizophrenia: A Metacognitive Approach to Semantic Memory

Recent studies have shown that schizophrenia may be a disease affecting the states of consciousness. The present study is aimed at investigating metamemory, i.e., the knowledge about one's own memory capabilities, in patients with schizophrenia. The accuracy of the Confidence level (CL) in the correctness of the answers provided during a recall phase, and the predictability of the Feeling of Knowing (FOK) when recall fails were measured using a task consisting of general information questions and assessing semantic memory. Nineteen outpatients were paired with 19 control subjects with respect to age, sex, and education. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia exhibited an impaired semantic memory. CL ratings as well as CL and FOK accuracy were not significantly different in the schizophrenic and the control groups. However, FOK ratings were significantly reduced for the patient group, and discordant FOK judgments were also observed more frequently. Such results suggest that FOK judgments are impaired in patients with schizophrenia, which confirms that schizophrenia is an illness characterized by an impaired conscious awareness of one's own knowledge.     

Episodic feeling-of-knowing accuracy and cued recall in the elderly: evidence for double dissociation involving executive functioning and processing speed

This research investigated adult age differences in a metamemory monitoring task-episodic feeling-of-knowing (FOK) and in an episodic memory task-cued recall. Executive functioning and processing speed were examined as mediators of these age differences. Young and elderly adults were administered an episodic FOK task, a cued recall task, executive tests and speed tests. Age-related decline was observed on all the measures. Correlation analyses revealed a pattern of double dissociation which indicates a specific relationship between executive score and FOK accuracy, and between speed score and cued recall. When executive functioning and processing speed were evaluated concurrently on FOK and cued recall variables, hierarchical regression analyses showed that executive score was a better mediator of age-related variance in FOK, and that speed score was the better mediator of age-related variance in cued recall.     

Memory and metamemory in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Studies on the link between checking and memory problems have produced equivocal results regarding a general memory deficit in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and subclinical checkers. However, there is clear and consistent evidence that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show lack of confidence in their memory performance. The purpose of the present study was to investigate memory and metamemory performance (feeling-of-knowing judgments) for neutral and threat-related material in three groups: OCD patients (OCs), subclinical checkers (SCs), and normal controls (NCs). Participants studied a list of neutral and threat word pairs. After an initial cued-recall test, they provided feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments for unrecalled word pairs, followed by a recognition test. The results showed that OCs but not SCs were impaired in both recall and recognition compared to NCs. OCs were also less confident about their future memory performance than the other two groups, as reflected in their lower FOK ratings. Moreover, FOK judgments of the OCs were not reliable predictors of their recognition performance. Finally, neither OCs nor SCs showed any evidence of memory bias for threat-relevant information. The results support the idea of a general memory and a metamemory deficit in OCs.     

知道感与不知道感：一个关于元记忆判断的双过程假设

中国科学院心理研究所心理健康重点实验室,北京 100101     

元记忆监测研究的横向比较

元记忆监测在记忆活动中发挥重要作用。元记忆自FOK研究开始,到理论框架的提出,各种理论逐渐发展成熟。文章从元记忆监测总过程的视角对近年来EOL、FOK、JOL、JOC等元记忆监测成分的研究范式、认知机制及神经机制进行了横向比较,概述了元记忆监测研究的进展及动态。     

高难度材料的元记忆监测更受记忆广度的制约

以不同难度(有、无意义联系)的两种中文词对为记忆材料,随机选取在校大学生200名,采用经典的回忆-判断-再认(recall-judgement-recognition,RJR)范式,考察短时记忆广度和一般自我效能感对个体在不同难度材料上元记忆监测的影响。结果发现,相比于无意义联系的材料,个体在有意义联系的材料上,JOL、FOK和JOC判断等级更高,线索回忆测验成绩更好。但是,个体在不同材料上的JOL判断和线索回忆受短时记忆广度的调节。不同短时记忆广度的个体在有意义联系材料上的JOL判断等级和线索回忆测验成绩无显著差异,但是在无意义联系材料上,高短时记忆广度个体的JOL判断等级和线索回忆测验成绩均显著高于低短时记忆广度个体。同时,相关分析结果也发现,相比于低短时记忆广度的个体,高短时记忆广度的个体,其线索回忆测验成绩和再认测验成绩与JOL、FOK和JOC判断等级之间更加相关。实验结果表明,作为一种人格变量,一般自我效能感对个体元记忆监测的影响可能并不明显。而短时记忆广度,很大程度上反映了个体的记忆能力,是个体元记忆监测的一个重要影响因素,尤其是对难度较大的材料。     

呈现方式、自我效能感和成就动机对FOK判断影响的研究

以英汉配对词为实验材料探讨了呈现方式、自我效能感和成就动机对ＦＯＫ判断（Ｆｅｅｌｉｎｇ ｏｆ Ｋｎｏｗｉｎｇ）的影响,被试是１４４名大学生。实验结果表明：（１）呈现方式、自我效能感和成就动机均显著影响ＦＯＫ判断等级的高低和判断的准确性;（２）自我效能感和成就动机在影响ＦＤＫ判断方面有显著的交互作用,成就动机对ＦＤＫ判断的作用受自我效能感影响;（３）被试的回忆成绩、再认成绩和ＦＤＫ判断准确性之间均有显著的正相关,表明客体记忆与无记忆之间有较密切的联系。     

Diminished episodic memory awareness in older adults: evidence from feeling-of-knowing and recollection

The ability to reflect on and monitor memory processes is one of the most investigated metamemory functions, and one of the important ways consciousnesses interacts with memory. The feeling-of-knowing (FOK) is one task used to evaluate individual's capacity to monitor their memory. We examined this reflective function of metacognition in older adults. We explored the contribution of metacognition to episodic memory impairment, in relation to the idea that older adults show a reduction in memory awareness characteristic of episodic memory. A first experiment showed that age affects the accuracy of FOK when predictions are made on an episodic memory task but not on a semantic memory task, suggesting a particular role for episodic memory awareness in metacognitive evaluations. A second experiment showed that the age-difference in episodic FOK accuracy was removed if one took into account subjective reports of memory awareness, or recollection. We argue that the FOK deficit specific to episodic memory is based on a lack of memory awareness manifest as a recollection deficit.     

知道感（FOK）和不知道感（FOnK）的双向实验分离

为了实现FOK（feeling-of-knowing）和FonK（feeling-of-not-knowing）的双向分离,实验一采用高频词或者低频词为线索项目,检验FOK和FOnK的预测准确性。结果发现,在低频线索条件下FOK的预测准确性表现出高于FOnK的预测准确性的趋势,而在高频线索条件下则正好相反,但上述两组差异并未在统计学上达到显著的程度。实验二采用词－非词对和相关词对两种实验条件,在证明相关词对条件可以促进FOK并降低FOnK的同时,观察到词－非词条件可以促进FOnK并降低FOK,从而在较为严格的意义上证明了FOK和FOnK是两个不同的维度的量。上述结果为知道感的“双过程假设”提供了进一步的实验证据     

自由回忆中元记忆监控的作用及其影响因素

采用“类信号检测论方法”,通过两个实验,研究了在记忆信息提取过程中元记忆的预见性监测判断（Feeling-of-knowing）和元控制的作用及其影响因素。实验一探讨了识记材料的难易、识记遍数对元监测判断以及输出控制中的反应标准是否有影响;实验二探讨了严格和宽松的奖惩条件对输出控制中反应标准的影响。用计算机随机呈现识记用的词表材料,识记之后让被试进行FOK等级判断和自由回忆,再用“类信号检测论”方法统计实验数据,分析各种条件下回忆成绩、FOK判断等级,计算出相应的符合率和反应标准。实验一结果表明,不同材料难度和识记遍数下的回忆成绩和FOK判断等级差异显著,但输出控制中的反应标准值没受这些因素的影响;实验二结果是严格和宽松奖惩条件下的反应标准值差异显著,严格条件下的反应标准显著高于宽松条件下的反应标准,表明奖惩条件对信息提取中的反应标准有显著影响     

Age differences in feeling-of-knowing and confidence judgements as a function of knowledge domain

For two semantic knowledge domains, general and computer-related, feeling-of-knowing (FOK) and confidence level (CL) ratings and their relative accuracy were assessed in young, middle-aged, and older adults, after test difficulty was equated across age groups. Global memory self-efficacy beliefs were also assessed for each domain. As expected, greater age was associated with poorer memory self-efficacy beliefs only in the computer domain. The oldest two groups were found to be more underconfident than young adults when rating their FOK but not their CL, for computer items but not for general items. Statistical control of age differences in memory self-efficacy beliefs in the relevant domain greatly reduced this age effect on computer-related FOK ratings. This finding suggests that absolute FOK judgments are more closely related to memory self-efficacy beliefs than are CL judgments. Gamma correlations between judgments and recognition performance revealed that all age groups were equally accurate in FOK and in CL judgments, in both domains.     

优生和差生FOK判断发展的实验研究

本研究用使用RJR研究范式,对小学五年级、初中一年级和高中一年级优生和差生的FOK判断进行探讨。结果发现:优生的FOK判断发展水平高于差生的。优生和差生的FOK判断发展均存在关键期,且优生的关键期早于差生的。优生FOK判断发展的关键期是在小学五年级与初一之间;差生FOK判断发展的关键期是在初一年级与高一年级之间。     

Prediction accuracy and memory performance: Correlational and experimental tests of a metamemory hypothesis

Summary In the performance prediction paradigm both a prediction of subjects' own memory performance (P) and their actual performance (A) are assessed. Prediction accuracy (PA) has been regarded as a measure of memory monitoring which in turn was assumed to be related positively to memory performance. A popular approach to test this metamemory hypothesis is based on correlations between measures of PA and of A. This approach is reexamined critically with regard to two classes of problems. The first is concerned with the definitions of at least six different PA measures represented in the literature. The second refers to statistical artifacts resulting from the part-whole character of the correlations between PA and A. Proceeding from the conclusion that a valid test of the metamemory hypothesis is not possible on the basis of correlations of PA and A, we propose an experimental procedure that properly permits the testing of the hypothesis that the utilization of monitoring activities during learning yields higher levels of memory performance.     

Basis of metamemory judgments for text with multiple‐choice,essay and recall tests

Accuracy of metamemory for text was compared for multiple‐choice, essay and recall tests. Essay and recall tests were scored with Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), number of correct idea units and number of word matches. Each measure was correlated with college students' predictions and posttest confidence judgments across texts to determine metamemory accuracy. Metamemory accuracy varied for different types of tests with multiple‐choice tests generally producing greater accuracy than essay tests. However, metamemory accuracy for essay and recall tests depended on the measure used to score them. Number of correct idea units produced the highest metamemory accuracy, word matches produced an intermediate level, and LSA produced the lowest accuracy. Students used the quantity of output in their judgments, so performance measures that related most strongly to quantity matched judgments better than measures based on answer quality. The results are compatible with an accessibility account of judgments about performance on text. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.