4. Memory Strategies
A Comprehensive Approach to Memory
Improvement
strategies too simplistic
Douglas Herrmann's multimodal approach
physical condition
psychological well-being
repertoire of several memory-improvement techniques
Langer—mindfulness rather than
mindlessness
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
5. Memory Strategies
Improving Prospective Memory
prospective memory—remembering what you
need to do in the future
remembering that you need to do something AND
remembering the content of what you need to do
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
6. Comparing Prospective
and Retrospective
Memory
Distinctive encoding +
Retrospective Memory:
Prospective Memory: retrieval cues, ↑
accuracy. Remember content + ideas
Remember content + action
Time- & Event-based ↑ delay btw encoding
Semantic & Episodic
Involves planning + problem & retrieval, ↓ Significant Research
solving accuracy
High Ecological Validity Rely on frontal lobes
Visual imagery
improves recall
External memory aid
7. Memory Strategies
Research on Prospective Memory
• demanding tasks and divided attention can lead to
forgetting to complete an unrelated prospective-
memory task
• switching tasks can lead to forgetting a prospective-
memory task later on
• disrupting a customary schema, ↑ absentmindness
• use encoding specificity for where you will be when
you will need to remember to complete the
prospective-memory task
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
8. Metacognition
metacognition—your knowledge and control of your
cognitive processes
supervises the way you select and use your memory
strategies
metamemory
metacomprehension
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
9. Metacognition
Metamemory and the Prediction of
Memory Performance
If you are confident about your performance on
some memory task, is your memory indeed
accurate?
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
10. Metacognition
Total-Score Basis
predict total number of correct responses
foresight bias—people overestimate the number of
correct answers they will provide on a future test
Why?
studying with the correct responses visible
Dunning and coauthors (2003)
estimate of total score after finishing exam
less competent students overestimated performance
11. Dunning et al. (2003)
Estimated Total Score vs. Actual Total Score
100
80
% Correct
60 Estimated Score
40 Actual Score
20
0
Bottom Second Third Top
Actual Performance Group
12. Metacognition
Metamemory on an Item-by-Item Basis
Metamemory can be highly accurate when we
consider people’s predictions about which
individual items they’ll remember and which
ones they'll forget (judgment of learning—JoL).
word-pairs vs. more complex material
delayed judgments more accurate
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
13. Metacognition
Individual Differences: Metamemory
and Adults with Attention-
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
People with ADHD are even more likely than
other people to overestimate their total score
on memory tasks.
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
14. Metacognition
Individual Differences: Metamemory
and Adults with Attention-
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Knouse and coauthors (2006)
• metamemory item-by-item
• word pairs, estimate likelihood of recall, immediate vs.
delayed JoL, ADHD and non-ADHD
• people with and without ADHD did not differ in the
accuracy of their immediate judgments; both groups
reasonably accurate in predicting future recall
• no group difference after delay; both groups even more
accurate in predicting future recall
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
15. Individual Differences:
Metamemory & ADHD
Figure 6.6a Accuracy of Predicting Which Items Will Be Correctly Recalled,
When Making Judgments of Learning Immediately After Seeing a Pair
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
16. Individual Differences:
Metamemory & ADHD
Figure 6.6b Accuracy of Predicting Which Items Will Be Correctly Recalled,
When Making Delayed Judgments
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
17. Metacognition
Take-home message:
People with ADHD may overestimate their
total scores on a memory test. However,
they are highly accurate in estimating their
performance on an item-by-item basis.
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
18. Metacognition
Metamemory and the Regulation of
Study Strategies
coordinating memory and decision making
spending more time on difficult material
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
19. Metacognition
Metamemory and the Regulation of
Study Strategies
Allocating Time When the Task is Easy
Nelson and Leonesio (1988)
• examine how students distribute their study time when they
can study at their own pace
• students allocated more study time for the items that they
believed would be difficult to master
• students spend longer than necessary studying items they
already know, and not enough time studying the items they
have not yet mastered
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
20. Metacognition
Allocating Time When the Task is Easy
(continued)
Son and Metcalfe (2000)—students spend more time
on difficult items in studies examining relatively
easy material like learning pairs of words
Do students adopt a different strategy in other
circumstances? Difficult material?
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
21. Metacognition
Allocating Time When the Task is
Difficult
conceptual information
limited study time
Son and Metcalfe (2000)
• test material—a series of eight encyclopedia-style
biographies
• time pressure—only 30 minutes to study
• rank the biographies in terms of difficulty
• students spent the majority of their study time on the
biographies they considered easy, rather than those they
considered difficult
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
22. Metacognition
Allocating Time When the Task is
Difficult (continued)
Other studies—when facing time pressure, students
choose to study material that seems relatively
easy to master
Experts concentrate their time on more challenging
material, compared to novices
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
23. Metacognition
Metacomprehension
metacomprehension—our thoughts about comprehension
Metacomprehension Accuracy
• college students are not very accurate in
metacomprehension skills--fail to spot
inconsistencies or missing information in a passage
• believe they have understood something because
they are familiar with its general topic
• fail to retain specific information
• overestimate how they will perform when tested
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
24. Metacognition
Metacomprehension Accuracy
Pressley and Ghatala (1988)
• reading comprehension using SAT; essay followed by
multiple choice questions
• students rate how certain they were that they had
answered each question correctly
• little difference between estimates on correct and incorrect
items
• students believed that they understood the material even
when they answered the questions incorrectly
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
25. Metacognition
Metacomprehension Accuracy
Maki and coauthors (1994)
metacomprehension accuracy and reading comprehension
scores significantly correlated
College students with low reading ability are
overconfident when they estimate their scores
on a difficult reading test; high-ability students
tend to be underconfident
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 6
Ch. 6 = opportunity to learn new material and help studying for the exam
Continuing with the topics discussed in Ch. 5, our memory is not as good as we think it is.
link system requires that you first form a visual image of each item in the list (which means that the items have to be capable of being imaged), and second, associate the image for each item with the image for the next item. To use the link system in remembering these five items, you first form a visual association relating paper and tire. You might picture a car driving on paper tires, or yourself using a tire to erase writing from a paper. Next, associate tire and doctor. You might picture a tire running over a doctor, or a tire performing an operation. To associate doctor and rose, you might picture a doctor operating on a rose, or a doctor giving roses to a patient. Finally, to associate rose and ball, you might picture two people playing catch with a rose, or balls growing on a rose bush.
Examples of PM: Mail out rent check, meeting with club, taking medication, going to appt, mailing letters
Unskilled and unaware
Why would estimates be accurate for item-by-item and not overall score? Material in front of you WM vs. LTM Memory for positive events better than neg events Wishful thinking
Correlation between item difficulty and study time = +.30, why is it so high? People strategically choose which items to study or not Why so low? People still spend too much time on easier items
Zone of proximal learning Vygostsky—zone of proximal development/ Scaffolding
Guessing answer 20% to absolutely certain = 100% When students answered the question correctly, average certainty was 73%. When students answered the question incorrectly, average certainty was 64%.
