Recently there has been increasing interest in exploring metamemory, defined as cognitions about one's own memory functions, and the relationship of such cognitions to actual memory performance in older adults. The proposed research examines metamemory and metamemory/performance relationships in an elderly population while carefully differentiating knowledge about one's own memory functions from beliefs of self-efficacy in memory demanding situations. The critical focus of the study is to determine the degree to which temporal lability in affective states and in perception of memorial self efficacy influence both measures of metamemory (including measures of memory knowledge), memory task performance and reports of memory failures in everyday life. The research design features a 100 occasion, two year intraindividual panel design analyzed by multivariate P-technique methods. This procedure permits a fine-grained assessment of temporal fluctuation in memory, metamemory and affective states. In addition, a large cross-sectional sample will be drawn to yield comparable information on interindividual covariation of the same variables. Taken together, these studies will provide unique information about the lability of traditional memory and metamemory measures while enabling a detailed examination of the link between states such as anxiety and depressive affect, perceptions and beliefs about personal self-efficacy and control in memory demanding situations, and memory task performance. Two of the hypotheses to be tested are: 1) short term fluctuations in affective state and perceived self efficacy covary with performance on standard word recognition and text recognition tasks and 2) widely used operational definitions of memory knowledge, e.g., task performance prediction, are strongly influenced by fluctuation in perceived self-efficacy and affective states in addition to any veridical knowledge of memory functions or capacity per se. Thus, the proposed research should make a useful contribution to our understanding of subject influences on metamemory and memory performance in adult populations.
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