Four areas of research are proposed that systematically evaluate age-related differences in associative learning within a metacognitive framework. A central assumption of this framework is that people actively participate in learning new material by (1) utilizing their knowledge about cognitively demanding tasks to select rehearsal strategies, (2) monitoring on-going learning and performance, and (3) utilizing such monitoring to regulate control processes that govern learning and performance. Our long-term objectives include discovering how each of these aspects of self-directed learning influences the rate of learning and age differences in learning. The proposed research involves four separate areas of effort. In general, the proposed experiments involve the use of paired-associate learning and recall to study metacognition, strategies, and learning. Area 1 represents a critical step toward implementing knowledge about aging, metacognition, and strategy use gained in the last funding cycle in a new and unique training program for older adults that simultaneously restructures negative beliefs about age and learning, trains relevant strategies for learning, and trains the use of self-testing (a practical method for using monitoring to guide study) during learning. Area 2 builds on work completed or in progress indicating age-related sparing of the ability to monitor the cognitive system. The investigators focus on factors that influence both relative and absolute accuracy of monitoring, and evaluate age differences in spontaneous (uninstructed) strategy use. Area 3 directs attention to the nature of mediational strategies used during associative learning, extending work with new methods for measuring strategy self-reports developed in the last funded cycle to evaluate age differences in spontaneous (uninstructed) strategy use. Area 4 evaluates the utilization of monitoring to guide self-paced study of paired-associates, in part through the creation of new metacognitive judgements that should help to explain age differences already identified in the utilization of monitoring. Outcomes obtained from all four areas have important theoretical implications for age differences in associative learning and will also provide valuable information on how to construct training and interventions programs to help older adults optimize learning in everyday situations.
| Eakin, Deborah K; Hertzog, Christopher; Harris, William (2014) Age invariance in semantic and episodic metamemory: both younger and older adults provide accurate feeling-of-knowing for names of faces. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 21:27-51 |
| Hertzog, Christopher; Fulton, Erika K; Sinclair, Starlette M et al. (2014) Recalled aspects of original encoding strategies influence episodic feelings of knowing. Mem Cognit 42:126-40 |
| Bailey, Heather R; Dunlosky, John; Hertzog, Christopher (2014) Does strategy training reduce age-related deficits in working memory? Gerontology 60:346-56 |
| Hertzog, Christopher; Fulton, Erika K; Mandviwala, Lulua et al. (2013) Older adults show deficits in retrieving and decoding associative mediators generated at study. Dev Psychol 49:1127-31 |
| Eakin, Deborah K; Hertzog, Christopher (2012) Age invariance in feeling of knowing during implicit interference effects. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 67:555-62 |
| Eakin, Deborah K; Hertzog, Christopher (2012) Immediate judgments of learning are insensitive to implicit interference effects at retrieval. Mem Cognit 40:8-18 |
| Horhota, Michelle; Lineweaver, Tara; Ositelu, Monique et al. (2012) Young and older adults' beliefs about effective ways to mitigate age-related memory decline. Psychol Aging 27:293-304 |
| Hertzog, Christopher; Price, Jodi; Dunlosky, John (2012) Age differences in the effects of experimenter-instructed versus self-generated strategy use. Exp Aging Res 38:42-62 |
| Hertzog, Christopher; Dunlosky, John (2011) Metacognition in Later Adulthood: Spared Monitoring Can Benefit Older Adults' Self-regulation. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 20:167-173 |
| Cavallini, Elena; Dunlosky, John; Bottiroli, Sara et al. (2010) Promoting transfer in memory training for older adults. Aging Clin Exp Res 22:314-23 |
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