Correcting a metacognitive error: feedback increases retention of low-confidence correct responses

Previous studies investigating posttest feedback have generally conceptualized feedback as a method for correcting erroneous responses, giving virtually no consideration to how feedback might promote learning of correct responses. Here, the authors show that when correct responses are made with low confidence, feedback serves to correct this initial metacognitive error, enhancing retention of low-confidence correct responses. In 2 experiments, subjects took an initial multiple-choice test on general knowledge facts and made a confidence judgment after each response. Feedback was provided for half of the questions, and retention was assessed by a final cued-recall test. Taking the initial test improved retention relative to not testing, and feedback further enhanced performance. Consistent with prior research, feedback improved retention by allowing subjects to correct initially erroneous responses. Of more importance, feedback also doubled the retention of correct low-confidence responses, relative to providing no feedback. The function of feedback is to correct both memory errors and metacognitive errors.     

Adolescents' emotion attributions and expectations of behavior in situations involving moral conflict

This study examined the idea that expectations of behavior in hypothetical situations involving potential moral transgressions are related to emotion attributions relating to both moral and cost-benefit considerations. We asked younger (14 years 5 months) and older (16 years 1 month) female and male adolescents (a) to make predictions about the probability that an adolescent placed in a hypothetical situation where a payoff could be obtained by acting in a nonmoral way would choose to do so and (b) to evaluate adolescents' attributions of moral (guilt) and cost-benefit-related emotions (satisfaction and fear) to the nonmoral action. Two different situations were examined; one looked at the possibility of stealing money from a lost wallet, and the other examined a situation where a contract with another peer could be broken for personal reasons. Results showed that expectations that the nonmoral action would be taken were positively related to the degree of satisfaction and negatively related to the degree of guilt and fear. However, the pattern of relations between emotion attributions and behavioral expectations differed between the two situations. Female and male adolescents had different levels of emotion attributions and behavioral expectations, but the relation between the two was similar for both. Finally, developmental comparisons indicated that older adolescents put more weight on guilt and were more internally consistent in the way that emotions were integrated into behavioral expectations.     

Christian Marabout,Soldier Monk: Charles de Foucauld between the French and the Tuareg

The life of Père Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916) epitomized many of the motifs and contradictions of French colonialism in North Africa: a cavalry officer turned incognito explorer of Morocco, he eventually renounced his worldly life and became a deeply ascetic Catholic monk, spending the last fifteen years of his life in the Algerian Sahara, primarily among the Muslim Tuareg population of the Ahaggar region. Foucauld remained close to the French military, but his approach to Christian–Muslim relations changed and matured over his time in Algeria. The present study examines Foucauld's complex relationship with colonialism and with the Tuareg during his lifetime, as well as his unexpected legacies in the present. In the Maghreb today, he is remembered for his work as a lexicographer and grammarian of the Tuareg language and its unique tifinagh alphabet – a contribution that was taken up and expanded upon by later Amazigh cultural revivalists. In addition, the Vatican in recent years has held Foucauld up as a model for interreligious dialogue and as a bridge between the Catholic Church and the Muslim world.     

Collective memory: conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches

In order to outline the conceptual landscape that frames discussions of collective memory, three oppositions are proposed: collective memory versus collective remembering; history versus collective memory; and individual memory versus collective remembering. From this perspective collective remembering is viewed as an active process that often involves contention and contestation among people rather than a static body of knowledge that they possess. Collective remembering is also viewed as privileging identity formation and contestation over the sort of objective representation of the past that is the aspiration of formal historical analysis. And finally, while collective remembering involves individual minds, it also suggests something more in the form of socially situated individuals, a claim that can usefully be formulated in terms of how members of a groups share a common set of cultural tools (e.g., narrative forms) and similar content.     

Fear of Hypoglycemia in Parents of Young Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

The current study examined fear of hypoglycemia in 81 mothers and 64 fathers of young children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) using the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey-Parents of Young Children (HFS-P-YC possible range = 26–130). Mothers and fathers completed the HFS-P-YC at enrollment and mothers completed it 2 weeks later. Families recorded daily blood glucose on a standardized meter for 2 weeks. Mothers’ mean total HFS-P-YC score was 75.0 (SD = 17.2) and fathers’ mean score was 66.5 (SD = 18.0). Mothers reported greater HFS-P-YC total and behavior subscale scores than fathers. Mothers’ HFS-P-YC scores were comparable to published HFS scores for mothers of preadolescents with T1DM and higher than adult patients with T1DM. The HFS-P-YC had good internal consistency and test–retest reliability in this sample. These findings suggest parents of young children with T1DM report a high level of fear of hypoglycemia. Additionally, the HFS-P-YC appears to be a reliable measure in this population.     

Superiority of variable to repeated practice in transfer on anagram solution

Previous research in motor learning shows that practicing variations of a task (variable practice) leads to better transfer than does repeatedly practicing the exact same task (repeated practice). In contrast, research on priming using verbal materials shows that performance on a test improves to the extent that the material at learning and test overlap. We tested whether variability in practice conditions can lead to improved performance with the verbal priming task of anagram solution. Participants practiced solving anagrams, either repeatedly solving the same anagram that was later tested, repeatedly solving a different anagram from the one that was later tested, or solving different variations of the anagram that was later tested. We found that this last condition-variable practice on different versions of an anagram-led to improved test performance in relation to repeated practice, even when the test anagram was the one that had been repeatedly practiced. This finding aligns results from the motor learning literature with a higher level cognitive task: anagram solution. Shea and Kohl's (1991) hypothesis, arguing that varied practice may lead to greater elaborative processing than does repeated practice, provides one account of the results.     

Children's false memories: easier to elicit for a negative than for a neutral event

The present study examined the role of valence in the development of children's implanted false memories. Seventy-six 7-year-old children listened to two true and one false narrative. The false narrative was either neutral ("moving to another classroom") or emotional negative ("being accused by the teacher for copying off your neighbor"). In addition, half of the children were presented with their class photograph while listening to the narratives. During two interviews, children recalled as many details as possible from the true and false events. Results showed that the negative event elicited more false memories than the neutral event. The presentation of a true photograph did not promote the development of false memories.