Why does experimental design moderate the effect of judgment of learning (JOL) reactivity?

Design effects constitute an important boundary condition for numerous memory effects: The structure of the study lists moderates the influence of these phenomena on free-recall tests. Previous research has shown that judgment of learning (JOL) reactivity-the effects of eliciting JOLs on memory performance-is also moderated by list composition. More specifically, Kaya and Mulligan (2025) showed that JOL reactivity in free recall is more positive in mixed than in pure lists. In this study, we examined why JOL reactivity shows design effects by testing the predictions from two prominent accounts of design effects: item-specific/relational processing and rehearsal borrowing. In Experiments 1 and 2, we demonstrate that, when memory is assessed via cued recall (Experiment 1) and recognition (Experiment 2), JOL reactivity produces the same positive effect for both mixed and pure lists, and no design effect occurs. These findings are consistent with the item-specific/relational and inconsistent with the rehearsal-borrowing account. Experiments 4 and 5 tested the rehearsal-borrowing account more directly by examining the self-paced study times for the JOL and no-JOL trials in mixed versus pure lists. The results showed that study times were not affected by the requirement to make a JOL or the list type, a finding inconsistent with the rehearsal-borrowing account. Taken together, the present study provides evidence for the item-specific/relational processing and against the rehearsal borrowing as the mechanism underlying the design effects in JOL reactivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).