The study of developmental metacognition was originally proposed as a way to better understand memory, by elucidating the processes that act upon and therefore affect it. Much research has been conducted to examine the nature of metacognitive processes, and the interaction between metacognitive judgments and learning behavior in adults. Developmental research has demonstrated that there is a strong developmental trend, such that metacognitive abilities emerge at age four years at the earliest and mature until adulthood. However, this estimate raises a potential paradox, given young children's excellent learning abilities, if monitoring and differentially responding to changes in internal states of knowledge is an important component of learning. This dissertation proposes that metacognitive processes, like memory-monitoring, rather than being distinct from and externally operating on core cognitive process, may be intrinsically linked to basic cognitive functions, arising naturally as a result of processing. By this account, metacognitive abilities emerge in implicit form early in development along with other developing cognitive functions like memory, and what is observed later as the emergence of metacognition may rather be the transition from an implicit and undifferentiated process to an explicit and more readily testable process. This dissertation presents six experiments exploring the relationship between memory-monitoring in non-human animals, preschool children, and adults, using a non-verbal paradigm adapted from comparative literature. Participants learned a set of visual paired-associates, and at test were given the option to selectively accept or decline a memory trial for each item. Accuracy for accepted items was significantly higher than for declined in children and there was a similar tendency with adults, suggesting implicit memory-monitoring skills. Additionally, a relationship between memory-monitoring assessments and other cognitive processes was found, suggesting that memory-monitoring does not function independently of other cognitions. The results suggest that children may have implicit access to internal knowledge states at very young ages, providing an explanation for how they are able to guide learning, even as infants. Further the results suggest that the relationship between metacognitive and other cognitive skills may be rather more dynamic and complex than has typically been described.

Este trabalho investigou processos metamnemônicos de monitoramento e controle, bem como conhecimento e desempenho de memória em diversas condições. O Capítulo I apresenta um paradigma experimental de aprendizado associativo de pares de palavras para avaliação da metamemória. No Capítulo II observou-se que julgamentos de aprendizagem (JOL) tardios foram mais precisos do que imediatos, porém apenas para adultos jovens, em comparação a adultos de idade intermediária. Adultos jovens contaram mais com seus JOLs e seu desempenho de memória prévios para alocação de tempo de estudo (STA), porém apenas na condição JOLs tardios. No Capítulo III, os grupos de pacientes pós-acidente vascular cerebral e controles não se diferenciaram significativamente quanto ao funcionamento metamnemônico. Contudo, uma análise de séries de casos revelou heterogeneidade dos casos e associações e dissociações funcionais entre memória e metamemória, além de uma dissociação dupla entre monitoramento e controle de memória, indicando que lesões à esquerda comprometem o monitoramento, enquanto lesões à direita o controle. / This work investigated metamemory processes of memory monitoring, control, as well as memory knowledge and performance in several conditions. Chapter I presents a paired-words associative learning experimental paradigm to assess metamemory. In Chapter II we observed that delayed judgements of learning (JOLs) were more accurate than immediate JOLs, however only for young adults compared to intermediate age adults. Young adults relied more on theirs previous JOLs and memory performance for the allocation of study-time (STA), though only in the delayed JOLs condition. In Chapter III a group analysis showed no significant differences for metamnemônic measures between stroke patients and controls. Nevertheless, a case series analysis revealed inter-case heterogeneity and functional associations and dissociations between memory and metamemory, in addition to a double dissociation between memory monitoring and control, which suggested that left hemisphere lesions impair the monitoring while right hemisphere lesions impair the control.

Este trabalho investigou processos metamnemônicos de monitoramento e controle, bem como conhecimento e desempenho de memória em diversas condições. O Capítulo I apresenta um paradigma experimental de aprendizado associativo de pares de palavras para avaliação da metamemória. No Capítulo II observou-se que julgamentos de aprendizagem (JOL) tardios foram mais precisos do que imediatos, porém apenas para adultos jovens, em comparação a adultos de idade intermediária. Adultos jovens contaram mais com seus JOLs e seu desempenho de memória prévios para alocação de tempo de estudo (STA), porém apenas na condição JOLs tardios. No Capítulo III, os grupos de pacientes pós-acidente vascular cerebral e controles não se diferenciaram significativamente quanto ao funcionamento metamnemônico. Contudo, uma análise de séries de casos revelou heterogeneidade dos casos e associações e dissociações funcionais entre memória e metamemória, além de uma dissociação dupla entre monitoramento e controle de memória, indicando que lesões à esquerda comprometem o monitoramento, enquanto lesões à direita o controle. / This work investigated metamemory processes of memory monitoring, control, as well as memory knowledge and performance in several conditions. Chapter I presents a paired-words associative learning experimental paradigm to assess metamemory. In Chapter II we observed that delayed judgements of learning (JOLs) were more accurate than immediate JOLs, however only for young adults compared to intermediate age adults. Young adults relied more on theirs previous JOLs and memory performance for the allocation of study-time (STA), though only in the delayed JOLs condition. In Chapter III a group analysis showed no significant differences for metamnemônic measures between stroke patients and controls. Nevertheless, a case series analysis revealed inter-case heterogeneity and functional associations and dissociations between memory and metamemory, in addition to a double dissociation between memory monitoring and control, which suggested that left hemisphere lesions impair the monitoring while right hemisphere lesions impair the control.

Este trabalho investigou processos metamnemônicos de monitoramento e controle, bem como conhecimento e desempenho de memória em diversas condições. O Capítulo I apresenta um paradigma experimental de aprendizado associativo de pares de palavras para avaliação da metamemória. No Capítulo II observou-se que julgamentos de aprendizagem (JOL) tardios foram mais precisos do que imediatos, porém apenas para adultos jovens, em comparação a adultos de idade intermediária. Adultos jovens contaram mais com seus JOLs e seu desempenho de memória prévios para alocação de tempo de estudo (STA), porém apenas na condição JOLs tardios. No Capítulo III, os grupos de pacientes pós-acidente vascular cerebral e controles não se diferenciaram significativamente quanto ao funcionamento metamnemônico. Contudo, uma análise de séries de casos revelou heterogeneidade dos casos e associações e dissociações funcionais entre memória e metamemória, além de uma dissociação dupla entre monitoramento e controle de memória, indicando que lesões à esquerda comprometem o monitoramento, enquanto lesões à direita o controle. / This work investigated metamemory processes of memory monitoring, control, as well as memory knowledge and performance in several conditions. Chapter I presents a paired-words associative learning experimental paradigm to assess metamemory. In Chapter II we observed that delayed judgements of learning (JOLs) were more accurate than immediate JOLs, however only for young adults compared to intermediate age adults. Young adults relied more on theirs previous JOLs and memory performance for the allocation of study-time (STA), though only in the delayed JOLs condition. In Chapter III a group analysis showed no significant differences for metamnemônic measures between stroke patients and controls. Nevertheless, a case series analysis revealed inter-case heterogeneity and functional associations and dissociations between memory and metamemory, in addition to a double dissociation between memory monitoring and control, which suggested that left hemisphere lesions impair the monitoring while right hemisphere lesions impair the control.

Memory monitoring, or the ability to accurately assess one’s memory retrieval success, is known to be declined for older adults. The behavioral decline has been well explored, and is specific to tasks of source monitoring; tasks involving item memory monitoring do not show age-related deficits. This study attempts to further characterize the decline by exploring neuroanatomical contributions to the decline, and genetic influences that may explain performance variability in older adults. Older adults were genotyped for the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) gene, and those that are carriers of the low-expressing allele demonstrate the expected age-related decline of source monitoring performance when compared to younger adults. Interestingly, older adults who lack this allele did not display any decline in performance when compared to younger adults. Neuroanatomical correlates of task performance indicate that prefrontal regions in the inferior and lateral cortices support accurate source memory monitoring, likely through their role in the proper selection of memory cues and inhibition of irrelevant information. This relationship suggests that age-related atrophy occurring in these structures could be responsible for the performance deficits on source memory monitoring tasks. There was no direct relationship seen between genotype for the 5-HTTLPR gene and cortical volumes, however diffusion tensor imaging shows that older adults who carry this allele have altered connections between the medial temporal lobe, responsible for memory retrieval, and prefrontal cortex, which monitors the retrieval process. Through stronger connections of critical networks, older adults who lack the 5-HTTLPR short allele may be able to compensate for the age-related atrophy seen in the prefrontal cortex. Functional results further indicate that the older adult non-carriers recruit inferior and lateral frontal regions to a greater extent than the older adult carriers during accurate memory monitoring. These results begin to suggest a neuroprotective mechanism for the 5-HTTLPR genotype, wherein some older adults may be able to postpone the expected decline of memory monitoring by retaining the ability to recruit essential inferior frontal structures through more organized white matter pathways. / text