Remind me of the context: Memory and metacognition at restudy

Publication date: August 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 101Author(s): Katarzyna Zawadzka, Nicola Simkiss, Maciej HanczakowskiAbstractMastering study materials often requires repeated learning. However, the strategy of restudying the same materials has been criticized for not giving sufficient opportunity for retrieval in the form of self-assessments that are known to benefit not only learning but also metacognitive monitoring of the learning process. Here we focus on the contribution of spontaneous retrieval in the form of reminding to repeated learning that does not require explicit self-assessments. By manipulating environmental context in which restudy takes place, we demonstrate that repeated learning in the same environmental context increases the incidence of reminding, augmenting learning and influencing metacognitive monitoring (as tapped into by immediate judgments of learning). At the same time, we demonstrate that explicit self-assessments – delayed judgments of learning – can be led astray by non-diagnostic spurious familiarity of environmental context which accompanies these assessments. The study thus reveals the positive effects of environmental context on restudy, while highlighting possible inaccuracies of metacognitive processes involved in explicit self-assessments of learning.

Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research