Date of Award

Spring 5-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

School

Psychology

Committee Chair

Mark J. Huff

Committee Chair School

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Lin Agler

Committee Member 2 School

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Alen Hajnal

Committee Member 3 School

Psychology

Committee Member 4

Lucas Keefer

Committee Member 4 School

Psychology

Committee Member 5

Hans Stadthagen

Committee Member 5 School

Psychology

Abstract

Judgments of learning (JOLs) are commonly used by researchers to assess whether individuals can accurately predict later memory performance. While the JOL literature has generally operated under the assumption that providing judgments at study does not affect the learning process, recent studies have shown a reactivity effect in which memory differs between participants who do and do not make JOLs at study. The effects of providing JOLs on memory have been mixed: Some studies report memory improvements (i.e., positive reactivity), while others report memory costs (i.e., negative reactivity). Additionally, little work has evaluated the effects of associative direction (i.e., credit-card vs. card-credit) and list structure (i.e., mixed vs pure lists) on JOL reactivity. Across four experiments, JOLs produced a reactive effect on learning which was consistently moderated by pair relatedness. Related pairs repeatedly showed positive reactivity, while no reactivity was observed for unrelated pairs. Importantly, this pattern extended to a novel frequency judgment task, suggesting that reactivity is not unique to JOLs and instead reflects relational encoding rather than metacognitive processes. Findings from Experiments 2-4 showed that this pattern emerged regardless of whether pair types were presented in mixed lists or pure lists, indicating that exposure to different pair types is not a requisite for reactivity to occur.

ORCID ID

0000-0003-4517-8323

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