Capacity,strategies, and metamemory: tests of a three-factor model of memory development

Multiple measures of three of the factors (capacity, strategies, and metamemory) hypothesized to cause improvements in memory with age were obtained from 179 children in kindergarten to second grade (younger: ages 5-8) or third and fourth grade (older: ages 8-11) during nine sessions of testing. Confirmatory factor analysis was computed separately for each age group. Results suggested that the fit of the three-factor model was statistically significantly better than a one-factor, general memory model for both age groups. However, the fit indices were borderline, and there was not sufficient evidence for a metamemory factor for younger children. The factors that influence memory performance may differ with age.     

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.     

Scrutinizing visual images: The role of gaze in mental imagery and memory

Gaze was monitored by use of an infrared remote eye-tracker during perception and imagery of geometric forms and figures of animals. Based on the idea that gaze prioritizes locations where features with high information content are visible, we hypothesized that eye fixations should focus on regions that contain one or more local features that are relevant for object recognition. Most importantly, we predicted that when observers looked at an empty screen and at the same time generated a detailed visual image of what they had previously seen, their gaze would probabilistically dwell within regions corresponding to the original positions of salient features or parts. Correlation analyses showed positive relations between gaze’s dwell time within locations visited during perception and those in which gaze dwelled during the imagery generation task. Moreover, the more faithful an observer’s gaze enactment, the more accurate was the observer’s memory, in a separate test, of the dimension or size in which the forms had been perceived. In another experiment, observers saw a series of pictures of animals and were requested to memorize them. They were then asked later, in a recall phase, to answer a question about a property of one of the encoded forms; it was found that, when retrieving from long-term memory a previously seen picture, gaze returned to the location of the part probed by the question. In another experimental condition, the observers were asked to maintain fixation away from the original location of the shape while thinking about the answer, so as to interfere with the gaze enactment process; such a manipulation resulted in measurable costs in the quality of memory. We conclude that the generation of mental images relies upon a process of enactment of gaze that can be beneficial to visual memory.     

Relations between children’s metamemory and strategic performance: Time-varying covariates in early elementary school

Although much is known about the development of memory strategies and metamemory during childhood, evidence for linkages between these memory skills, either concurrently or over time, has been limited. Drawing from a longitudinal investigation of the development of memory, repeated assessments of children’s (N = 107) strategy use and declarative metamemory were made to examine the development of these skills and the relations between them over time. Latent curve models were used first to estimate the trajectories of children’s strategy use and metamemory and then to examine predictors of children’s performance in each of these domains. Children’s metamemory at the beginning of Grade 1 was linked to child- and home-level factors, whereas the development of both skills was related to maternal education level. Additional modeling of the longitudinal relations between strategic sorting and metacognitive knowledge indicated that metamemory at earlier time points was predictive of subsequent strategy use.     

The development of the memorability-based strategy: insight from a training study

We investigated whether the memorability-based strategy, a process supporting the rejection of nonexperienced event occurrence, could be promoted through training. The performance of children who received memorability-based training was compared with that of (a) children who received source-monitoring training and (b) children who did not receive any specific training but were instructed to be as accurate as possible. Participants (142 6- to 10-year-olds) enacted common and bizarre actions. Eighteen days later, participants received misinformation about the first session. Five days after being misinformed, children were questioned about the first session. Compared with children in the no training condition, those in both training conditions reported significantly more true events, but only older children who received the memorability-based training were more likely to reject bizarre suggested events. Age interacted with action type when metacognitive assessments about false event rejection were examined, consistent with the idea that the use of the memorability-based strategy develops late during the elementary school years.     

The retrieval of self-defining memories is associated with the activation of specific working selves

This article presents two studies that investigated the impact of the retrieval of self-defining memories on individuals' sense of self. Participants recalled positive and/or negative self-defining memories, rated memory characteristics and completed measures focusing on different self-aspects. Study 1 found that participants reported higher state self-esteem after recalling a positive memory than after recalling a negative one. They also reported lower negative self-consistency and higher state self-concept clarity and positive self-consistency, but this result became non-significant after controlling for state self-esteem. Study 2 found that participants reported higher state self-esteem, a marginally higher proportion of recreation/exploration, goals and a marginally lower proportion of achievement goals after recalling a positive memory than after recalling a negative one. They also reported a higher proportion of self-cognitions referring to emotional states after recalling memories from which they had not abstracted meaning than after recalling memories from which they had done this. These findings suggest that the retrieval of vivid, emotional and highly self-relevant memories may be accompanied by the activation of specific self-representations or working selves. They also suggest that the experience of memory-related intrusive images may temporarily influence individuals' sense of self. The implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed.     

Persistent overconfidence despite practice: The role of task experience in preschoolers’ recall predictions

In three experiments, preschoolers’ ability to predict their picture recall was examined. Children studied 10 pictures, predicted how many they would recall, and then attempted to recall them. This study-prediction-recall trial was repeated multiple times with new pictures on each trial. In Experiment 1, children were overconfident on the initial trial, and this overconfidence persisted across three trials. In Experiment 2, children predicted either their own performance or another child’s performance. Their predictions were overconfident across all trials regardless of whether they made predictions for themselves or for another child, suggesting that wishful thinking cannot fully account for their overconfidence. In Experiment 3, some children postdicted their previous recall performance prior to making each prediction. Although their postdictions were quite accurate, their predictions were still overconfident across five trials. Preschoolers’ overconfidence was remarkably resistant to the repeated experience of recalling fewer pictures than the children had predicted. Even asking them to report the number that they recalled on a previous trial, which they could do accurately, did not cause them to lower their predictions across trials.     

Non-abstractive global-matching models: A framework for investigating the distinctiveness effect on explicit and implicit memory

One very well-known memory phenomenon is the observation that if a specific item seems to be different or rare in any way from other items present in the same encoding context, this item is likely to be remembered more accurately. This phenomenon, named the von Restorff effect or the isolation effect, has been known since 1933 and been considered today as one of the possible ways to create distinctiveness. The aim of this article is to report that the current debate concerning its non-emergence in implicit memory tasks is directly due to a theoretical disagreement about the nature of human memory. In this paper, we conclude that non-abstractive global-matching models can provide an effective theoretical framework for the study of the distinctiveness effect with isolation both in implicit and explicit memory tasks.     

Short-term memory predictions across the lifespan: monitoring span before and after conducting a task

Our objective was to explore metamemory in short-term memory across the lifespan. Five age groups participated in this study: 3 groups of children (4–13 years old), and younger and older adults. We used a three-phase task: prediction–span–postdiction. For prediction and postdiction phases, participants reported with a Yes/No response if they could recall in order a series of images. For the span task, they had to actually recall such series. From 4 years old, children have some ability to monitor their short-term memory and are able to adjust their prediction after experiencing the task. However, accuracy still improves significantly until adolescence. Although the older adults had a lower span, they were as accurate as young adults in their evaluation, suggesting that metamemory is unimpaired for short-term memory tasks in older adults.

Highlights:

?We investigate metamemory for short-term memory tasks across the lifespan.

?We find younger children cannot accurately predict their span length.

?Older adults are accurate in predicting their span length.

?People’s metamemory accuracy was related to their short-term memory span.     

Study effort versus distinctiveness in the recollection of veridical and illusory memories

In past research, stimulus distinctiveness and study effort have been claimed to promote the development of distinctive memories, which in turn have been considered critical for enhancing veridical recollection and reducing illusory memory experiences. In the present investigation, stimulus distinctiveness, obtained by displaying text-redundant pictorial information at study, was pitted against study effort to determine whether either factor would be more beneficial to veridical recall and more detrimental to illusory recall than the other. Subjects first completed word fragments with or without the aid of an image of each word’s referent and then performed a recall test. It was found that when images were useful to the encoding task (fragment completion), their presence at study enhanced veridical recall and reduced illusory memories more than any additional encoding effort.     

Chronometric evidence for memory retrieval in causal conditional reasoning: The case of the association strength effect

According to many models of conditional reasoning, correct responses to the uncertain forms affirmation of consequent (AC) and denial of antecedent (DA) rely on the retrieval of an alternative antecedent from semantic memory. The main prediction issuing from this hypothesis of online retrieval is that the associative strength of the relevant information in long-term memory affects the latency of its retrieval and then of the correct response of uncertainty to AC and DA. This prediction was tested in 64 adults who performed a syllogism evaluation task with familiar causal conditional premises. As predicted, correct responses of uncertainty to AC and DA were not only more frequent but also faster when the antecedent term was weakly rather than strongly associated with the consequent. In line with the semantic framework, we also observed that this strength effect in response times was reversed for incorrect responses of certainty to AC.     

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire: A population-based random sampling study

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) has been shown to have acceptable reliability and factorial, predictive, and concurrent validity. However, the PRMQ has never been administered to a probability sample survey representative of all ages in adulthood, nor have previous studies controlled for factors that are known to influence metamemory, such as affective status. Here, the PRMQ was applied in a survey adopting a probabilistic three-stage cluster sample representative of the population of São Paulo, Brazil, according to gender, age (20–80 years), and economic status (n=1042). After excluding participants who had conditions that impair memory (depression, anxiety, used psychotropics, and/or had neurological/psychiatric disorders), in the remaining 664 individuals we (a) used confirmatory factor analyses to test competing models of the latent structure of the PRMQ, and (b) studied effects of gender, age, schooling, and economic status on prospective and retrospective memory complaints. The model with the best fit confirmed the same tripartite structure (general memory factor and two orthogonal prospective and retrospective memory factors) previously reported. Women complained more of general memory slips, especially those in the first 5 years after menopause, and there were more complaints of prospective than retrospective memory, except in participants with lower family income.     

The effect of a salient odor context on memory retrieval in young infants

Three-month-old infants were trained to move a mobile in the presence of a coconut or cherry odor (context). One or 5 days later, the infants were tested for retrieval in the presence of either the same odor, the alternate odor, or no odor. Infants tested with the training odor displayed retention at both intervals; retention was not seen at either interval in the alternate odor or no odor conditions. These data suggest that the odor combines with the mobile to form a compound-stimulus representation of the learned task whose presence after both short (1 day) and long (5 days) intervals is a necessary retrieval cue.     

Flow state in self-paced and externally-paced performance contexts: An examination of the flow model

ObjectivesKimiecik and Stein's (1992) flow model proposed that personal and situational factors affect the experience of flow. Singer, 1988, Singer, 2000 argued that different mental processes underlie self-initiated and reactive performances. The first purpose of this study was to examine main and interaction effects between imagery use and confidence on flow state in different performance contexts. The second purpose was to assess main and interaction effects between flow state, imagery, and confidence on self-paced service and externally-paced groundstroke performance in tennis.DesignThis field study used a repeated-measures design.MethodA pilot study was conducted to inform the set up of the two performance contexts. Flow states were assessed on two separate occasions, (a) for the service performance, and (b) for the groundstroke performance. A total of 60 junior tennis athletes completed imagery and confidence measures before the field test.ResultsA significant interaction between imagery and confidence was found for flow state in the groundstroke but not in the service task. No significant interaction effects were found for performance outcome. Flow state significantly predicted groundstroke performance, and imagery and confidence predicted service performance.ConclusionsThe examination of flow in different performance contexts is challenging. Imagery and confidence are central to the experience of flow. Flow state appeared to be more important for the externally-paced than self-paced task. The relationship between flow and performance is complex, which requires the conceptual expansion of Kimiecik and Stein's (1992) flow model.     

Age-related changes in frequency of mind-wandering and task-related interferences during memory encoding and their impact on retrieval

During the performance of cognitive tasks such as memory encoding, attention can become decoupled from the external environment and instead focused on internal thoughts related to the appraisal of the current task (task-related interferences; TRI), or personal thoughts unrelated to the task at hand (mind-wandering; MW). However, the association between the frequency of these thoughts experienced at encoding and retrieval accuracy in young and older adults remains poorly understood. In this study young and older adults encoded lists of words using one of two encoding tasks: judging whether words are man-made/natural (objective task), or whether they are pleasant/neutral (subjective task). We measured the frequency of TRI and MW at encoding, and related them to retrieval accuracy in both age groups. We found that encoding task influenced the type of internal thoughts experienced by young, but not older, adults: young exhibited greater MW in the subjective vs the objective task, and greater TRI in the objective vs subjective encoding task. Second, across both tasks we found marked age-related decreases in both MW and TRI at encoding, and frequency of these thoughts negatively impacted memory retrieval in young adults only. We discuss these findings in relation to current theories of ageing, attention and memory.     

Remembering from any angle: the flexibility of visual perspective during retrieval

When recalling autobiographical memories, individuals often experience visual images associated with the event. These images can be constructed from two different perspectives: first person, in which the event is visualized from the viewpoint experienced at encoding, or third person, in which the event is visualized from an external vantage point. Using a novel technique to measure visual perspective, we examined where the external vantage point is situated in third-person images. Individuals in two studies were asked to recall either 10 or 15 events from their lives and describe the perspectives they experienced. Wide variation in spatial locations was observed within third-person perspectives, with the location of these perspectives relating to the event being recalled. Results suggest remembering from an external viewpoint may be more common than previous studies have demonstrated.     

Evidence for the contribution of a threshold retrieval process to semantic memory

It is widely held that episodic retrieval can recruit two processes: a threshold context retrieval process (recollection) and a continuous signal strength process (familiarity). Conversely the processes recruited during semantic retrieval are less well specified. We developed a semantic task analogous to single-item episodic recognition to interrogate semantic recognition receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) for a marker of a threshold retrieval process. We fitted observed ROC points to three signal detection models: two models typically used in episodic recognition (unequal variance and dual-process signal detection models) and a novel dual-process recollect-to-reject (DP-RR) signal detection model that allows a threshold recollection process to aid both target identification and lure rejection. Given the nature of most semantic questions, we anticipated the DP-RR model would best fit the semantic task data. Experiment 1 (506 participants) provided evidence for a threshold retrieval process in semantic memory, with overall best fits to the DP-RR model. Experiment 2 (316 participants) found within-subjects estimates of episodic and semantic threshold retrieval to be uncorrelated. Our findings add weight to the proposal that semantic and episodic memory are served by similar dual-process retrieval systems, though the relationship between the two threshold processes needs to be more fully elucidated.     

The development of memory for own- and other-race faces

This study demonstrates that experience and development interact to influence the "cross-race effect." In a multination study (n=245), Caucasian children and adults of European ancestry living in the United States, Norway, or South Africa, as well as biracial (Caucasian-African American) children and adults living in the United States, were tested for recognition of Asian, African, and Caucasian faces. Regardless of national or biracial background, 8- to 10-year-olds, 12- to 14-year-olds, and adults recognized own-race faces more accurately than other-race faces, and did so to a similar extent, whereas 5- to 7-year-olds recognized all face types equally well. This same developmental pattern emerged for biracial children and adults. Thus, early meaningful exposure did not substantially alter the developmental trajectory. During young childhood, developmental influences on face processing operate on a system sufficiently plastic to preclude, under certain conditions, the cross-race effect.     

Counterfactual thinking and confidence in blackjack: A test of the counterfactual inflation hypothesis

This research tests the idea that repeatedly generating counterfactual thoughts in response to recurring events can lead to impairments in memory for actual outcomes (i.e., counterfactual inflation hypothesis). Participants (N = 56) played 40 games of blackjack and listed their thoughts after each win. They were instructed to list evaluative counterfactuals, reflective counterfactuals, or any thoughts that came to mind following each loss. Because reflective counterfactuals focus only on the alternatives to reality, and not in addition to reality (like evaluative counterfactuals), they were expected to lead to the greatest degree of overestimations of performance and confidence for future blackjack playing. The results confirmed this hypothesis, and also demonstrated that the relationship between thought-listing instructions and confidence for the future was mediated by overestimations of performance. Thus, repeatedly generating reflective counterfactual thoughts appears to lead to a special case of imagination inflation with dysfunctional implications for future confidence and risk-taking.     

Age differences in the effects of social influence on children's eyewitness performance and their metacognitive monitoring

The current work investigated the effects of social influence on children's recall accuracy and metacognitive monitoring. Two studies were conducted in which 8- and 10-year-olds were confronted with postevent information in an interview situation. An interviewer (Study 1) or a confederate (Study 2) provided postevent information with two levels of assertiveness, inducing (a) a variation of conformity pressure and (b) a variation of information credibility. Afterwards, children's confidence judgments were assessed. The results revealed significant age differences in children's ability to adequately cope with variations of social influence. Although conformity pressure was especially important for the 8-year-olds, effects of informative social influence were independent of age. However, 10-year-olds were also able to act appropriately on low credibility, thereby demonstrating a more sophisticated consideration of social influence sources. Moreover, varying assertiveness also affected the quality of children's confidence judgments by improving their metacognitive differentiation skills.