Judgments of learning enhance elaborative rather than relational processing: Implications from phonologically related and phonological-semantic mediated pairs

Abstract

Judgment of learning (JOL) reactivity refers to the effect that making JOLs directly impacts subsequent memory performance. One of the most replicated findings in this line of research is that JOLs enhance memory for related word pairs. However, so far, only semantic relatedness has been studied, and many existing theories of JOL reactivity, such as the cue-strengthening hypothesis and the enhanced relational processing account, are heavily dependent on findings generated with semantically related word pairs. The current study used phonologically related pairs instead of semantically related pairs. Specifically, we used rhyme pairs (e.g., fall-tall) in Experiments 1A and 1B and homophone pairs (e.g., coarse-course) in Experiments 2A, 2B, and 2C. A consistent pattern emerged that JOLs did not produce reactivity for phonologically related pairs on associative recall tests, unlike for semantically related pairs. This supports the hypothesis that JOL reactivity reflects an enhancement in elaborative processing, which presumably can involve either item-specific or relational processing that focuses on deeper, semantic content, rather than relational processing that focuses on relational content of any nature. In Experiment 3, we found positive JOL reactivity for phonological-semantic mediated pairs (e.g., coarse-class, where coarse is phonologically related to an unpresented mediator course that is semantically related to class). This, in contrast to the null reactivity for pure phonological relatedness, again supports the necessity of semantic processing in positive JOL reactivity. We discuss how the elaborative processing account offers an opportunity to reconcile existing theoretical explanations and help build a general framework for JOL reactivity.