Memory strategy monitoring in adults and children

Abstract

In five experiments, adults and 11- to 13-year-old children were exposed to two study strategies for vocabulary learning: repetition of words with meanings and associative elaboration (the keyword method). Subjects were asked to choose one of the two study methods for learning a 24-item list of new vocabulary words. Adults demonstrated awareness of the relative efficacy of the two study strategies only following practice with the two methods accompanied by a test on the practice list. They did not exhibit an awareness of the relative utility of the two methods when the practice test was omitted. Children, in addition to having to experience the practice list and test, required explicit feedback about their performance with the two strategies before they demonstrated clear awareness that the elaboration method was superior. The data are relevant to recent positions on the role of metacognitive experiences for metacognitive knowledge and cognitive actions.