Abstract
Source monitoring can be influenced by information that is external to the study context, such as beliefs and general knowledge (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). We investigated the extent to which metamnemonic judgments predict memory for items and sources when schematic information about the sources is or is not provided at encoding. Participants made judgments of learning (JOLs) to statements presented by two speakers and were informed of the occupation of each speaker either before or after the encoding session. Replicating earlier work, prior knowledge decreased participants’ tendency to erroneously attribute statements to schematically consistent but episodically incorrect speakers. The origin of this effect can be understood by examining the relationship between JOLs and performance: JOLs were equally predictive of item and source memory in the absence of prior knowledge, but were exclusively predictive of source memory when participants knew of the relationship between speakers and statements during study. Background knowledge determines the information that people solicit in service of metamnemonic judgments, suggesting that these judgments reflect control processes during encoding that reduce schematic errors.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alba, J. W., & Hasher, L. (1983). Is memory schematic? Psychological Bulletin, 93, 203–231. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.93.2.203
Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (1995). Implicit gender stereotyping in judgments of fame. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 68, 181–198. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.2.181
Bayen, U. J., Nakamura, G. V., Dupuis, S. E., & Yang, C.-L. (2000). The use of schematic knowledge about sources in source monitoring. Memory & Cognition, 28, 480–500.
Begg, I., Duft, S., Lalonde, P., Melnick, R., & Sanvito, J. (1989). Memory predictions are based on ease of processing. Journal of Memory & Language, 28, 610–632. doi:10.1016/0749-596X(89)90016-8
Benjamin, A. S. (2001). On the dual effects of repetition on false recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 27, 941–947. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.27.4.941
Benjamin, A. S. (2008). Memory is more than just remembering: Strategic control of encoding, accessing memory, and making decisions. In A. S. Benjamin & B. H. Ross (Eds.), Skill and strategy in memory use: The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 48, pp. 175–223). San Diego: Academic Press.
Benjamin, A. S., & Bjork, R. A. (1996). Retrieval fluency as a metacognitive index. In L. M. Reder (Ed.), Implicit memory and metacognition (pp. 309–338). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Benjamin, A. S., & Bjork, R. A. (2000). On the relationship between recognition speed and accuracy for words rehearsed via rote versus elaborative rehearsal. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 26, 638–648. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.26.3.638
Benjamin, A. S., Bjork, R. A., & Schwartz, B. L. (1998). The mismeasure of memory: When retrieval fluency is misleading as a metamnemonic index. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 127, 55–68. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.127.1.55
Benjamin, A. S., & Craik, F. I. M. (2001). Parallel effects of aging and time pressure on memory for source: Evidence from the spacing effect. Memory & Cognition, 29, 691–697.
Benjamin, A. S., & Diaz, M. (2008). Measurement of relative metamnemonic accuracy. In J. Dunlosky & R. A. Bjork (Eds.), Handbook of memory and metamemory (pp. 73–94). New York: Psychology Press.
Brewer, W. F., & Treyens, J. C. (1981). Role of schemata in memory for places. Cognitive Psychology, 13, 207–230. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(81)90008-6
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 56, 5–18. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.56.1.5
Hertzog, C., Dunlosky, J., Robinson, A. E., & Kidder, D. P. (2003). Encoding fluency is a cue used for judgments about learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 29, 22–34. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.29.1.22
Hicks, J. L., & Cockman, D. W. (2003). The effect of general knowledge on source memory and decision processes. Journal of Memory & Language, 48, 489–501. doi:10.1016/S0749-596X(02)00537-5
Hunt, R. R., & Einstein, G. O. (1981). Relational and item-specific information in memory. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 20, 497–514. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(81)90138-9
Johnson, M. K., Hashtroudi, S., & Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Source monitoring. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 3–28. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.3
Koriat, A. (1997). Monitoring one’s own knowledge during study: A cue-utilization approach to judgments of learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 349–370. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.126.4.349
Koriat, A., Bjork, R. A., Sheffer, L., & Bar, S. K. (2004). Predicting one’s own forgetting: The role of experience-based and theorybased processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 643–656. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.133.4.643
Koriat, A., Goldsmith, M., & Pansky, A. (2000). Toward a psychology of memory accuracy. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 481–537. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.481
Koriat, A., & Ma’ayan, H. (2005). The effects of encoding fluency and retrieval fluency on judgments of learning. Journal of Memory & Language, 52, 478–492. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2005.01.001
Lampinen, J. M., Faries, J. M., Neuschatz, J. S., & Toglia, M. P. (2000). Recollections of things schematic: The influence of scripts on recollective experience. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14, 543–554. doi:10.1002/1099-0720(200011/12)14:6<543::AIDACP674> 3.0.CO;2-K
Marsh, R. L., Cook, G. I., & Hicks, J. L. (2006). Gender and orientation stereotypes bias source-monitoring attributions. Memory, 14, 148–160. doi:10.1080/09658210544000015
Mather, M., Johnson, M. K., & De Leonardis, D. M. (1999). Stereotype reliance in source monitoring: Age differences and neuropsychological test correlates. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 437–458. doi:10.1080/026432999380870
Neuschatz, J. S., Lampinen, J. M., Preston, E. L., Hawkins, E. R., & Toglia, M. P. (2002). The effect of memory schemata on memory and the phenomenological experience of naturalistic situations. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 687–708. doi:10.1002/acp.824
Payne, B. K., Jacoby, L. L., & Lambert, A. J. (2004). Memory monitoring and the control of stereotype distortion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 52–64. doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00069-6
Pezdek, K., Whetstone, T., Reynolds, K., Askari, N., & Dougherty, T. (1989). Memory for real-world scenes: The role of consistency with schema expectation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 15, 587–595. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.15.4.587
Schwartz, B. L., Benjamin, A. S., & Bjork, R. A. (1997). The inferential and experiential bases of metamemory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 132–137. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10772899
Sherman, J. W., & Bessenoff, G. R. (1999). Stereotypes as sourcemonitoring cues: On the interaction between episodic and semantic memory. Psychological Science, 10, 106–110. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00116
Sherman, J. W., Groom, C. J., Ehrenberg, K., & Klauer, K. C. (2003). Bearing false witness under pressure: Implicit and explicit components of stereotype-driven memory distortions. Social Cognition, 21, 213–246. doi:10.1521/soco.21.3.213.25340
Sherman, J. W., Lee, A. Y., Bessenoff, G. R., & Frost, L. A. (1998). Stereotype efficiency reconsidered: Encoding flexibility under cognitive load. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 75, 589–606. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.3.589
Smith, D. A., & Graesser, A. C. (1981). Memory for actions in scripted activities as a function of typicality, retention interval, and retrieval task. Memory & Cognition, 9, 550–559.
Son, L. K., & Metcalfe, J. (2000). Metacognitive and control strategies in study-time allocation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 26, 204–221. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.26.1.204
Spaniol, J., & Bayen, U. J. (2002). When is schematic knowledge used in source monitoring? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 631–651. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.28.4.631
Stangor, C., & McMillan, D. (1992). Memory for expectancy-congruent and expectancy-incongruent information: A review of the social and social developmental literatures. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 42–61. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.111.1.42
Thiede, K. W., & Dunlosky, J. (1999). Toward a general model of self-regulated study: An analysis of selection of items for study and self-paced study time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 25, 1024–1037. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.25.4.1024
Tuckey, M. R., & Brewer, N. (2003). The influence of schemas, stimulus ambiguity, and interview schedule on eyewitness memory over time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9, 101–118. doi:10.1037/1076-898X.9.2.101
Wickens, T. D. (2002). Elementary signal detection theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was funded in part by Grant R01 AG026263 from the National Institutes of Health.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Konopka, A.E., Benjamin, A.S. Schematic knowledge changes what judgments of learning predict in a source memory task. Memory & Cognition 37, 42–51 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.1.42
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.1.42