Title:
Examining metacognitive control: are there age-related differences in item selection during self-paced study?

dc.contributor.advisor Hertzog, Christopher
dc.contributor.author Price, Jodi L. en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Dunlosky, John
dc.contributor.committeeMember Engle, Randall
dc.contributor.committeeMember Rogers, Wendy
dc.contributor.committeeMember Smith, Anderson
dc.contributor.department Psychology en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2008-09-17T19:51:47Z
dc.date.available 2008-09-17T19:51:47Z
dc.date.issued 2008-05-19 en_US
dc.description.abstract Self-paced study involves choosing items for (re)study and determining how much time will be allocated to those items so as to maximize later recall, making it a viable venue for examining whether there are age-related differences in metacognitive control. Two prominent models have been proposed to account for item selection and study time allocation behaviors during self-paced study. The Discrepancy Reduction Model (DRM; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998; Nelson & Leonesio, 1988) suggests individuals will always select and allocate the most time to items that have not yet been learned, whereas the Region of Proximal Learning model (RPL; Metcalfe, 2002) predicts individuals will select the easiest unknown items and will only later select and allocate time to the more difficult items if time constraints permit, thus making distinctions among unlearned items graded by difficulty. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether younger and older adults item selection and study time allocation behaviors would be more consistent with DRM or RPL model predictions. Across both experiments younger and older adults initially selected easier items for study, providing the first evidence to date that the RPL model would extend to older adults self-paced study of heterogeneously difficult Spanish-English vocabulary pairs. However, both younger and older adults allocated more time to difficult than easier items. The assignment of point values to items in Experiment 2 affected how likely participants were to pursue each of four experimenter-determined task goals that either stressed the number of words recalled, points earned, or both. Whether point values initially favored recall of easy or difficult items interacted with time constraints to influence the basis (objective versus subjective difficulty) and order of participants item selections (Experiment 2). However, younger adults were better able to effectively allocate their study time to achieve self-determined (Experiment 1) and experimenter-determined goals (Experiment 2), indicating age-related differences in metacognitive control despite younger and older adults having similar memory self-efficacy ratings and encoding strategy use behaviors. en_US
dc.description.degree Ph.D. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/24781
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Metacognitive control en_US
dc.subject Metacognition en_US
dc.subject Goal setting and goal pursuit en_US
dc.subject Self-regulated learning en_US
dc.subject Strategy use en_US
dc.subject Aging en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Time management
dc.subject.lcsh Recollection (Psychology)
dc.subject.lcsh Study skills
dc.subject.lcsh Independent study
dc.subject.lcsh Ability, Influence of age on
dc.title Examining metacognitive control: are there age-related differences in item selection during self-paced study? en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Hertzog, Christopher
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename School of Psychology
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 2b802a7a-5741-4ff8-8649-2faa57c15cba
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 768a3cd1-8d73-4d47-b418-0fc859ce897d
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