No description available.

No description available.

Because maximizing the learning of new material is a relevant concern for most individuals, understanding the specific processes involved could be beneficial for people of all ages. Both encoding and monitoring occur during the learning acquisition phase, yet monitoring accuracy and subsequent neural activation have been relatively ignored in the literature. The current research adapts a common metacognitive paradigm using Judgments of Learning (JOLs) to explore the neural differences in monitoring between younger (18-25) and older (65+) adults. Participants were asked to remember natural scenes and predict encoding success by providing a JOL response for each item. Participants were told to respond “will remember” if they believed they would remember that item on a later recognition memory test or “will forget” if they thought they would forget that item on a later recognition memory test. Actual memory performance was compared to predicted memory performance to provide a measure of monitoring accuracy. Individuals reported a JOL response for 150 intact (Easy) and 150 scrambled (Difficult) scenes while in a 3.0T fMRI scanner. Despite minimal differences in behavioral performance, there were several age-related neuroimaging findings of note. When compared to younger adults, older adults had decreases in medial temporal lobe (MTL) activation, as well as contralateral recruitment of the anterior cingulate. Most importantly, the present study also disambiguated structures related to encoding success (the right parahippocampus) and monitoring accuracy (the anterior cingulate). A novel account of neural structures that mediate monitoring is provided both across items varying in difficulty (Easy and Difficult) and across different age groups (Young and Old). Encoding and monitoring are important for learning acquisition and the present research provides the first account that successfully disambiguates the two processes. Results are discussed in reference to their educational implications on resource allocation during the learning of new material.

Properly tuned metacognitive knowledge is important for setting up realistic learning goals. One of the more robust findings in metacognitive science, the delayed JOL effect, pertains to the fact that delaying judgments of learning (JOL) leads to more accurate monitoring of one’s learning. Thirty students were tested on their knowledge of metacognitive strategies. They were asked to study paired associates, make JOLs, and were later tested with a cued recall test, as well asked about the efficacy of strategies for making JOLs. There was a significant positive effect in monitoring accuracy, from delaying JOLs, yet the participants showed poor explicit knowledge of it, and neither did their choice of strategy improve with task experience. The results demonstrate the important role of correct assessment during ongoing learning, and that even experienced learners, such as, university undergraduates are seemingly unaware of which strategies lead to optimal monitoring.

No description available.

No description available.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツで使用している。

No description available.

No description available.

Judgments of Learning (JOLs) are judgments of the likelihood of remembering recently studied material on a future test. Although JOLs have been extensively studied, particularly due to their important applications in education, relatively little is known about the cognitive and neural processes supporting JOLs and how these processes relate to actual memory processing. Direct access theories describe JOLs as outputs following direct readings of memory traces and hence predict that JOLs cannot be distinguished from objective memory encoding operations. Inferential theories, by contrast, claim JOLs are products of the evaluation of a number of cues, perceived by learners to carry predictive value. This alternative account argues that JOLs are made on the basis of multiple underlying processes, which do not necessarily overlap with memory encoding. In this thesis, the neural and cognitive bases of JOLs were examined in a series of four ERP experiments. Across experiments the study phase ERP data showed that JOLs produce neural activity that is partly overlapping with, but also partly distinct from, the activity that predicts successful memory encoding. Furthermore, the neural correlates of successful memory encoding appear sensitive to the requirements to make a JOL, emphasising the close interaction between subjective and objective measures of memory encoding. Finally, the neural correlates of both JOLs and successful memory encoding were found to vary depending on the nature of the stimulus materials, suggesting that both phenomena are supported by multiple cognitive and neural systems. Although the primary focus was on the study phase ERP data, the thesis also contains two additional chapters reporting the ERP data acquired during the test phases of three of the original experiments. These data, which examined the relative engagements of retrieval processes for low and high JOL items, suggest that encoding processes specifically resulting in later recollection (as opposed to familiarity) form one reliable basis for making JOLs. Overall, the evidence collected in this series of ERP experiments suggests that JOLs are not pure products of objective memory processes, as suggested by direct access theories, but are supported by neural systems that are at least partly distinct from those supporting successful memory encoding. These observations are compatible with inferential theories claiming that JOLs are supported by multiple processes that can be differentially engaged across stimulus contents.