Making Judgments of Learning Increases Restudy Choices: Evidence for Reactivity in Metacognitive Control

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Metacognition Research

Background:

• Research indicates that making judgments of learning (JOLs) during encoding can affect memory performance, a phenomenon termed the reactivity effect.
• However, the impact of JOLs on metacognitive control, specifically the regulation of learning, remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether making JOLs during learning reactively influences metacognitive control.
• To examine this effect across diverse material types: unrelated word pairs, general knowledge questions, and related word pairs.

Main Methods:

• Participants studied various materials and made item-by-item judgments of learning (JOLs) or no JOLs.
• Following each item, participants decided whether to restudy it, serving as a measure of metacognitive control.
• The study compared restudy choices between JOL and no-JOL conditions across different material types.

Main Results:

• Across all tested materials, participants in the JOL condition reliably selected a higher proportion of items for restudy compared to the no-JOL condition.
• This finding indicates a robust reactivity effect of JOLs on metacognitive control.
• The effect on metacognitive control was consistent regardless of material type.

Conclusions:

• Making JOLs during learning exerts a reactive influence on metacognitive control, altering study decisions.
• The reactivity effect of JOLs extends beyond memory performance to encompass the regulation of learning.
• Future research and theoretical considerations should account for JOL reactivity in both memory outcomes and metacognitive processes.