When judging what you know changes what you really know: Soliciting metamemory judgments reactively enhances children's learning.

Recent studies established that making concurrent judgments of learning (JOLs) can significantly alter (typically enhance) memory itself-a reactivity effect. The current study recruited 190 Chinese children (Mage  = 8.68 years; 101 female) in 2020 and 2021 to explore the reactivity effect on children's learning, its developmental trajectory and associated metacognitive awareness. The results showed that making JOLs significantly enhanced retention for students in Grades 1, 3, and 5, with Cohen's ds ranging from 0.40 to 1.33. Grade 5 students exhibited a larger reactivity effect than Grade 1 and 3 students. Children's metacognitive appreciation of the effect was weak. Firsthand experience of the reactivity effect, induced by taking a memory test, enhanced their awareness and calibrated their judgment accuracy.

Aging Predicts Decline in Explicit and Implicit Memory: A Life-Span Study.

Explicit memory declines with age, but age effects on implicit memory are debated. This issue is important because if implicit memory is age invariant, it may support effective interventions in individuals experiencing memory decline. In this study, we overcame several methodological issues in past research to clarify age effects on implicit memory (priming) and their relationship to explicit memory (recognition, source memory). We (a) recruited a large life-span sample of participants (N = 1,072) during a residency at the Science Museum in London, (b) employed an implicit task that was unaffected by explicit contamination, and (c) systematically manipulated attention and depth of processing to assess their contribution to age effects. Participants witnessed a succession of overlapping colored objects, attending to one color stream and ignoring the other, and identified masked objects at test before judging whether they were previously attended, unattended, or new. Age significantly predicted decline in both explicit and implicit memory for attended items.

Procedural and declarative learning in dyslexia.

The procedural deficit hypothesis claims that impaired procedural learning is at least partly responsible for the deficits in learning to read seen in children with developmental dyslexia. This study used a reading ability-matched design to examine group differences in both procedural and declarative learning. Both children with dyslexia and typically developing children demonstrated procedural learning on a serial reaction time task, although learning in the typically developing group increased at a greater rate towards the end of the task compared with children with dyslexia. However, these results do not provide strong evidence for the procedural deficit hypothesis, because poorer procedural learning in the group with dyslexia may reflect impairments in motor learning, rather than sequence specific procedural learning. In addition, neither group showed a relationship between procedural learning and reading ability.

Postretrieval new learning does not reliably induce human memory updating via reconsolidation.

Reconsolidation theory proposes that retrieval can destabilize an existing memory trace, opening a time-dependent window during which that trace is amenable to modification. Support for the theory is largely drawn from nonhuman animal studies that use invasive pharmacological or electroconvulsive interventions to disrupt a putative postretrieval restabilization ("reconsolidation") process. In human reconsolidation studies, however, it is often claimed that postretrieval new learning can be used as a means of "updating" or "rewriting" existing memory traces. This proposal warrants close scrutiny because the ability to modify information stored in the memory system has profound theoretical, clinical, and ethical implications. The present study aimed to replicate and extend a prominent 3-day motor-sequence learning study [Walker MP, Brakefield T, Hobson JA, Stickgold R (2003) Nature 425(6958):616-620] that is widely cited as a convincing demonstration of human reconsolidation. However, in four direct replication attempts (n = 64), we did not observe the critical impairment effect that has previously been taken to indicate disruption of an existing motor memory trace. In three additional conceptual replications (n = 48), we explored the broader validity of reconsolidation-updating theory by using a declarative recall task and sequences similar to phone numbers or computer passwords. Rather than inducing vulnerability to interference, memory retrieval appeared to aid the preservation of existing sequence knowledge relative to a no-retrieval control group. These findings suggest that memory retrieval followed by new learning does not reliably induce human memory updating via reconsolidation.

The procedural learning deficit hypothesis of language learning disorders: we see some problems.

Impaired procedural learning has been suggested as a possible cause of developmental dyslexia (DD) and specific language impairment (SLI). This study examined the relationship between measures of verbal and non-verbal implicit and explicit learning and measures of language, literacy and arithmetic attainment in a large sample of 7 to 8-year-old children. Measures of verbal explicit learning were correlated with measures of attainment. In contrast, no relationships between measures of implicit learning and attainment were found. Critically, the reliability of the implicit learning tasks was poor. Our results show that measures of procedural learning, as currently used, are typically unreliable and insensitive to individual differences. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvV-BvNWSo.

The anchoring effect in metamemory monitoring.

Judgments about future memory performance (metamemory judgments) are known to be susceptible to illusions and bias. Here we asked whether metamemory judgments are affected, like many other forms of judgment, by numerical anchors. Experiment 1 confirmed previous research showing an effect of informative anchors (e.g., past peer performance) on metamemory monitoring. In four further experiments, we then explored the effects of uninformative anchors. All of the experiments obtained significant anchoring effects on metamemory monitoring; in contrast, the anchors had no effect on recall itself. We also explored the anchoring effect on metamemory control (restudy choices) in Experiment 4. The results suggested that anchors can affect metamemory monitoring, which in turn affects metamemory control. The present research reveals that informative and, more importantly, uninformative numbers that have no influence on recall itself can bias metamemory judgments. On the basis of the current theoretical understanding of the anchoring effect and metamemory monitoring, these results offer insight into the processes that trigger metacognitive biases.

A single-system model predicts recognition memory and repetition priming in amnesia.

We challenge the claim that there are distinct neural systems for explicit and implicit memory by demonstrating that a formal single-system model predicts the pattern of recognition memory (explicit) and repetition priming (implicit) in amnesia. In the current investigation, human participants with amnesia categorized pictures of objects at study and then, at test, identified fragmented versions of studied (old) and nonstudied (new) objects (providing a measure of priming), and made a recognition memory judgment (old vs new) for each object. Numerous results in the amnesic patients were predicted in advance by the single-system model, as follows: (1) deficits in recognition memory and priming were evident relative to a control group; (2) items judged as old were identified at greater levels of fragmentation than items judged new, regardless of whether the items were actually old or new; and (3) the magnitude of the priming effect (the identification advantage for old vs new items) overall was greater than that of items judged new. Model evidence measures also favored the single-system model over two formal multiple-systems models. The findings support the single-system model, which explains the pattern of recognition and priming in amnesia primarily as a reduction in the strength of a single dimension of memory strength, rather than a selective explicit memory system deficit.

A simple algorithm for the offline recalibration of eye-tracking data through best-fitting linear transformation.

Poor calibration and inaccurate drift correction can pose severe problems for eye-tracking experiments requiring high levels of accuracy and precision. We describe an algorithm for the offline correction of eye-tracking data. The algorithm conducts a linear transformation of the coordinates of fixations that minimizes the distance between each fixation and its closest stimulus. A simple implementation in MATLAB is also presented. We explore the performance of the correction algorithm under several conditions using simulated and real data, and show that it is particularly likely to improve data quality when many fixations are included in the fitting process.

Authors' response: the primacy of conscious decision making.

The target article sought to question the common belief that our decisions are often biased by unconscious influences. While many commentators offer additional support for this perspective, others question our theoretical assumptions, empirical evaluations, and methodological criteria. We rebut in particular the starting assumption that all decision making is unconscious, and that the onus should be on researchers to prove conscious influences. Further evidence is evaluated in relation to the core topics we reviewed (multiple-cue judgment, deliberation without attention, and decisions under uncertainty), as well as priming effects. We reiterate a key conclusion from the target article, namely, that it now seems to be generally accepted that awareness should be operationally defined as reportable knowledge, and that such knowledge can only be evaluated by careful and thorough probing. We call for future research to pay heed to the different ways in which awareness can intervene in decision making (as identified in our lens model analysis) and to employ suitable methodology in the assessment of awareness, including the requirements that awareness assessment must be reliable, relevant, immediate, and sensitive.

Unconscious influences on decision making: a critical review.

To what extent do we know our own minds when making decisions? Variants of this question have preoccupied researchers in a wide range of domains, from mainstream experimental psychology (cognition, perception, social behavior) to cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics. A pervasive view places a heavy explanatory burden on an intelligent cognitive unconscious, with many theories assigning causally effective roles to unconscious influences. This article presents a novel framework for evaluating these claims and reviews evidence from three major bodies of research in which unconscious factors have been studied: multiple-cue judgment, deliberation without attention, and decisions under uncertainty. Studies of priming (subliminal and primes-to-behavior) and the role of awareness in movement and perception (e.g., timing of willed actions, blindsight) are also given brief consideration. The review highlights that inadequate procedures for assessing awareness, failures to consider artifactual explanations of "landmark" results, and a tendency to uncritically accept conclusions that fit with our intuitions have all contributed to unconscious influences being ascribed inflated and erroneous explanatory power in theories of decision making. The review concludes by recommending that future research should focus on tasks in which participants' attention is diverted away from the experimenter's hypothesis, rather than the highly reflective tasks that are currently often employed.

Everyday amnesia: Residual memory for high confidence misses and implications for decision models of recognition.

Despite studying a list of items only minutes earlier, when reencountered in a recognition memory test, undergraduate participants often say with total confidence that they have not studied some of the items before. Such high confidence miss (HCM) responses have been taken as evidence of rapid and complete forgetting and of everyday amnesia (Roediger & Tekin, 2020). We investigated (a) if memory for HCMs is completely lost or whether a residual memory effect exists and (b) whether dominant decision models predict the effect. Participants studied faces (Experiments 1a, 2, and 3) or words (Experiment 1b), then completed a single-item recognition memory task, followed by either (a) a two-alternative forced-choice recognition task, in which the studied and nonstudied alternatives on each trial were matched for their previous old/new decision and confidence rating (Experiments 1 and 2) or (b) a second single-item recognition task in which the targets and foils were HCMs and high confidence correct rejections, respectively (Experiment 3). In each experiment, participants reliably distinguished HCMs from high-confidence correct rejections. The unequal variance signal detection and dual-process signal detection models were fit to the single-item recognition data, and the parameter estimates were used to predict the memory effect for HCMs. The dual-process signal detection model predicted the residual memory effect (as did another popular model, the mixture signal detection theory model). However, the unequal variance signal detection model incorrectly predicted a negative, or no, effect, invalidating this model. The residual memory effect for HCMs demonstrates that everyday amnesia is not associated with complete memory loss and distinguishes between decision models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring open science practices in behavioural public policy research.

In their book 'Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness', Thaler & Sunstein (2009) argue that choice architectures are promising public policy interventions. This research programme motivated the creation of 'nudge units', government agencies which aim to apply insights from behavioural science to improve public policy. We closely examine a meta-analysis of the evidence gathered by two of the largest and most influential nudge units (DellaVigna & Linos (2022 Econometrica 90, 81-116 (doi:10.3982/ECTA18709))) and use statistical techniques to detect reporting biases. Our analysis shows evidence suggestive of selective reporting. We additionally evaluate the public pre-analysis plans from one of the two nudge units (Office of Evaluation Sciences). We identify several instances of excellent practice; however, we also find that the analysis plans and reporting often lack sufficient detail to evaluate (unintentional) reporting biases. We highlight several improvements that would enhance the effectiveness of the pre-analysis plans and reports as a means to combat reporting biases. Our findings and suggestions can further improve the evidence base for policy decisions.

Conscious and unconscious memory and eye movements in context-guided visual search: A computational and experimental reassessment of Ramey, Yonelinas, and Henderson (2019).

Are eye movements unconsciously guided towards target locations in familiar scenes? In a recent eyetracking study, Ramey, Yonelinas, and Henderson (2019) measured eye-movement efficiency (scanpath ratio) and memory judgments when participants searched for targets in repeated and novel scenes. When trials judged new with high confidence were selected, scanpath ratio was lower for old scenes (misses) than for new scenes (correct rejections). In addition, familiarity as measured by recognition confidence did not significantly predict scanpath ratio. Ramey et al. attributed these results to unconscious learning guiding eye movements. In a re-assessment of Ramey et al.'s data, we show that their findings can be accounted for by a single-system computational model in which eye movements and memory judgments are driven by a common latent memory representation. In particular, (a) the scanpath ratio difference between high-confidence misses and correct rejections is a consequence of regression to the mean, while (b) the null correlation between familiarity and scanpath ratio, partly a natural consequence of the low reliability of the scanpath ratio measure, is also reproduced by the model. Two pre-registered experiments confirm a novel prediction of the alternative single-system model. This work offers a parsimonious account of Ramey et al.'s findings without recourse to unconscious guidance of eye movements.

Do partial and distributed tests enhance new learning?

Testing facilitates subsequent learning of new information, a phenomenon known as the forward testing effect. The effect is often investigated in multilist procedures, where studied lists are followed by a retrieval test, or a control task such as restudying, and learning is compared on the final list. In most studies of the effect, tests include all material from the preceding list. We report four experiments, three of which were preregistered, to determine whether tests that are partial (not including all studied items) and distributed (including retrieval of items from earlier lists) are effective in enhancing new learning. The results show that testing of all studied material is not necessary to produce beneficial effects on new learning or to reduce intrusions. The beneficial effects of testing were substantially mediated by reduced proactive interference. Importantly, there was minimal evidence that the forward learning benefits of partial and distributed tests are offset by a cost to untested items via retrieval-induced forgetting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Metamemory judgments have dissociable reactivity effects on item and interitem relational memory.

Making metamemory judgments reactively changes item memory itself. Here we report the first investigation of reactive influences of making judgments of learning (JOLs) on interitem relational memory-specifically, temporal (serial) order memory. Experiment 1 found that making JOLs impaired order reconstruction. Experiment 2 observed minimal reactivity on free recall and negative reactivity on temporal clustering. Experiment 3 demonstrated a positive reactivity effect on recognition memory, and Experiment 4 detected dissociable effects of making JOLs on order reconstruction (negative) and forced-choice recognition (positive) by using the same participants and stimuli. Finally, a meta-analysis was conducted to explore reactivity effects on word list learning and to investigate whether test format moderates these effects. The results show a negative reactivity effect on interitem relational memory (order reconstruction), a modest positive effect on free recall, and a medium-to-large positive effect on recognition. Overall, these findings imply that even though making metacognitive judgments facilitates item-specific processing, it disrupts relational processing, supporting the item-order account of the reactivity effect on word list learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Judgments of learning reactively facilitate visual memory by enhancing learning engagement.

Recent studies have found that making judgments of learning (JOLs) for verbal materials changes memory itself, a form of reactivity effect on memory. The current study explores the reactivity effect on visual (image) memory and tests the potential role of enhanced learning engagement in this effect. Experiment 1 employed object image pairs as stimuli and observed a positive reactivity effect on memory for visual details. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated this positive reactivity effect using pairs of scene images. Experiment 3 introduced mind wandering (MW) probes to measure participants' attentional state (learning engagement) and observed that making JOLs significantly reduced MW. More importantly, reduced MW mediated the reactivity effect. Lastly, Experiment 4 found that a manipulation that heightened learning motivation decreased the reactivity effect. Overall, the current study provides the first demonstration of the reactivity effect on visual memory, as well as support for the enhanced learning engagement explanation. Practical implications are discussed.

Meta-analyses in psychology often overestimate evidence for and size of effects.

Adjusting for publication bias is essential when drawing meta-analytic inferences. However, most methods that adjust for publication bias do not perform well across a range of research conditions, such as the degree of heterogeneity in effect sizes across studies. Sladekova et al. 2022 (Estimating the change in meta-analytic effect size estimates after the application of publication bias adjustment methods. Psychol. Methods) tried to circumvent this complication by selecting the methods that are most appropriate for a given set of conditions, and concluded that publication bias on average causes only minimal over-estimation of effect sizes in psychology. However, this approach suffers from a 'Catch-22' problem-to know the underlying research conditions, one needs to have adjusted for publication bias correctly, but to correctly adjust for publication bias, one needs to know the underlying research conditions. To alleviate this problem, we conduct an alternative analysis, robust Bayesian meta-analysis (RoBMA), which is not based on model-selection but on model-averaging. In RoBMA, models that predict the observed results better are given correspondingly larger weights. A RoBMA reanalysis of Sladekova et al.'s dataset reveals that more than 60% of meta-analyses in psychology notably overestimate the evidence for the presence of the meta-analytic effect and more than 50% overestimate its magnitude.