Self‐paced study time as a cue for recall predictions across school age

Recent work on metacognition indicates that monitoring is sometimes based itself on the feedback from control operations. Evidence for this pattern has not only been shown in adults but also in elementary schoolchildren. To explore whether this finding can be generalized to a wide range of age groups, 160 participants from first to eighth grade participated in a study based on a self‐paced study time (ST) allocation paradigm. In contrast to previous studies, picture pairs instead of word pairs were used as stimuli to compensate for reduced reading skills in younger participants. Actual ST and judgments of learning (JOLs) made at the end of each study trial were used as core variables. The results are in line with previous findings, in that children's JOLs decreased with increasing ST, suggesting that JOLs were based on the memorizing effort heuristic that easily learned items are more likely to be remembered. Weaker inverse relationship between JOLs and ST was found for the younger children. Overall, these results underline the importance of mnemonic cues in shaping metacognitive feelings not only in adults but also in older children and expose a developmental trend in their use along childhood.     

Influence of Domain Knowledge on Monitoring Performance Across the Life Span

Two studies were conducted to investigate effects of domain knowledge on metacognitive monitoring across the life span in materials of different complexity. Participants from 4 age groups (3rd-grade children, adolescents, younger and older adults) were compared using an expert–novice paradigm. In Study 1, soccer experts’ and novices’ ease-of-learning judgments (EOLs), judgments of learning (JOLs), and confidence judgments (CJs) were contrasted when memorizing soccer-related word pairs. In Study 2, monitoring judgments (i.e., a rating of global comprehension, JOLs, and CJs) were collected in regards to a soccer-related narrative. The results of both approaches showed that experts’ better memory performance obtained in both studies was not always accompanied by advantages in monitoring performance. In Study 1, experts of all ages outperformed novices in monitoring accuracy. In Study 2, no benefits of expertise on monitoring were found; in children, novices even surpassed experts in monitoring quality. In both studies, the most consistent influence of previous domain knowledge on monitoring performance concerned more optimistic judgments of experts compared with novices, regardless of stimuli and recall format. In sum, our results document a twofold effect of expertise on monitoring. Although domain-specific knowledge enhances monitoring performance in some situations, more optimistic estimates, presumably due to the application of a familiarity heuristic, typically reduce experts’ monitoring accuracy.     

Der ausreichend gute Therapeut

Psychotherapists show a great variation in their ability to achieve positive outcomes in therapy. Specifically, they vary in terms of their ability to identify and repair ruptures in the therapeutic alliance. Alliance ruptures are a frequent phenomenon but often go undetected; however, repairing alliance ruptures represents a great opportunity to improve the psychotherapy process and therapy outcome. Empirical research suggests that patient feedback should be included in the psychotherapy process to be able to detect alliance ruptures better. From a psychodynamic point of view, a “sufficiently good” therapist is a therapist who can acknowledge the countertransference-based limitations in evaluating the therapeutic alliance with patients and the need to use feedback in order to detect and repair inevitable alliance ruptures. The consequences for research, practice and psychotherapy training are considered.     

Safer Sex in Social Context: Individualistic and Relational Determinants of AIDS‐Preventive Behavior Among Gay Men1

This longitudinal study of gay men examined safer sex within steady relationships and assessed whether relationship quality influenced safer sex with casual partners. The theoretical frameworks of Rusbult's (1980) investment model of romantic relationships and of Ajzen's (1988, 1991) model of planned behavior were used. Unprotected intercourse with a steady partner was practiced significantly more often when both partners in a steady relationship were seronegative and had an explicit agreement to keep it safe with casual partners. However, there was no indication that explicit agreements reduced the occurrence of unsafe extrarelational sex. Both the investment model of romantic relationships and the model of planned behavior were successful in accounting for sexual risk behavior outside the relationship.