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The Rumsfeld effect: the unknown unknown.

James A Hampton1, Bayo Aina, J Mathias Andersson

  • 1Department of Psychology, City University, London, United Kingdom. hampton@city.ac.uk

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|September 14, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People can improve test consistency by using a "don't know" option for factual questions. This awareness of ignorance benefit was not observed for conceptual knowledge or personal identity questions, suggesting known unknowns are mainly factual.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Metacognition
  • Epistemology

Background:

  • Metacognitive awareness, including the ability to recognize one's own ignorance, plays a role in cognitive performance.
  • Previous research suggests that monitoring knowledge states can influence learning and memory recall.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if allowing individuals to categorize uncertain knowledge as "don't know" enhances test consistency over time.
  • To determine if this metacognitive strategy is effective across different types of knowledge, including factual, conceptual, and personal identity.

Main Methods:

  • Participants completed tests where they could select a "don't know" option for uncertain items.
  • Test consistency was measured over repeated assessments.
  • The study differentiated between factual, conceptual, and personal identity knowledge domains.

Main Results:

  • A significant enhancement in test consistency was observed for factual knowledge when the "don't know" option was utilized.
  • No comparable improvement in test consistency was found for conceptual knowledge or knowledge related to personal identity.
  • The findings suggest that the benefit of acknowledging ignorance is primarily linked to factual information.

Conclusions:

  • Awareness of ignorance, specifically through a "don't know" category, can improve test consistency for factual knowledge.
  • This metacognitive strategy appears less effective for non-factual knowledge domains like concepts and personal identity.
  • Known unknowns are predominantly associated with factual knowledge.