Terracotta: A tool for conducting experimental research on student learning

For researchers seeking to improve education, a common goal is to identify teaching practices that have causal benefits in classroom settings. To test whether an instructional practice exerts a causal influence on an outcome measure, the most straightforward and compelling method is to conduct an experiment. While experimentation is common in laboratory studies of learning, experimentation is increasingly rare in classroom settings, and to date, researchers have argued it is prohibitively expensive and difficult to conduct experiments on education in situ. To address this challenge, we present Terracotta (Tool for Education Research with RAndomized COnTrolled TriAls), an open-source web application that integrates with a learning management system to provide a comprehensive experimental research platform within an online class site. Terracotta automates randomization, informed consent, experimental manipulation of different versions of learning activities, and export of de-identified research data. Here we describe these features, and the results of a live classroom demonstration study using Terracotta, a preregistered replication of McDaniel et al. (Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1(1), 18-26, 2012). Using Terracotta, we experimentally manipulated online review assignments so that consenting students alternated, on a weekly basis, between taking multiple-choice quizzes (retrieval practice) and reading answers to these quizzes (restudy). Students' performance on subsequent exams was significantly improved for items that had been in retrieval practice review assignments. This successful replication demonstrates that Terracotta can be used to experimentally manipulate consequential aspects of students' experiences in education settings.

Learning Introductory Biology: Students' Concept-Building Approaches Predict Transfer on Biology Exams

Previous studies have found that students' concept-building approaches, identified a priori with a cognitive psychology laboratory task, are associated with student exam performances in chemistry classes. Abstraction learners (those who extract the principles underlying related examples) performed better than exemplar learners (those who focus on memorizing the training exemplars and responses) on transfer exam questions but not retention questions, after accounting for general ability. We extended these findings to introductory biology courses in which active-learning techniques were used to try to foster deep conceptual learning. Exams were constructed to contain both transfer and retention questions. Abstraction learners demonstrated better performance than exemplar learners on the transfer questions but not on the retention questions. These results were not moderated by indices of crystallized or fluid intelligence. Our central interpretation is that students identified as abstraction learners appear to construct a deep understanding of the concepts (presumably based on abstract underpinnings), thereby enabling them to apply and generalize the concepts to scenarios and instantiations not seen during instruction (transfer questions). By contrast, other students appear to base their representations on memorized instructed examples, leading to good performance on retention questions but not transfer questions.

Individual Differences in Structure Building: Impacts on Comprehension and Learning, Theoretical Underpinnings, and Support for Less Able Structure Builders

In this article, we highlight an underappreciated individual difference: structure building. Structure building is integral to many everyday activities and involves creating coherent mental representations of conversations, texts, pictorial stories, and other events. People vary in this ability in a way not generally captured by other better known concepts and individual difference measures. Individuals with lower structure-building ability consistently perform worse on a range of comprehension and learning measures than do individuals with higher structure-building ability, both in the laboratory and in the classroom. Problems include a range of comprehension processes, including encoding factual content, inhibiting irrelevant information, and constructing a cohesive situation model of a text or conversation. Despite these problems, recent research is encouraging in that techniques to improve the learning outcomes for low-ability structure builders have been identified. We argue that the accumulated research warrants the recognition of structure building as an important individual difference in cognitive functioning and that additional theoretical work is needed to understand the underpinnings of structure-building deficits.

Effects of feature highlighting and causal explanations on category learning in a natural-science domain

Teaching natural-science categories is highly challenging because the objects in such categories are composed of numerous complex dimensions that need to be perceived, evaluated, and integrated. Furthermore, the boundaries separating such categories are often fuzzy. A technique that has been proposed and investigated for enhancing the teaching of natural-science categories is feature highlighting, in which diagnostic features for identifying category members are explicitly described and illustrated. Using rock classification in geology as an example target domain, the present study further investigated the potential benefits of feature highlighting and also of providing causal explanations for the highlighted features. The authors found that feature highlighting did not always lead to improved generalization to novel members of the taught categories. However, robust beneficial effects were seen when the categories were relatively confusable ones and the stated diagnostic features were highly valid for distinguishing among the categories. Finally, at least under the present conditions, supplementing the highlighted features with causal explanations of the reasons for their occurrence did not further enhance the participants' rock-classification learning and generalization. Although the teaching of causal explanations is fundamental to science education, clear evidence that causal explanations enhance classification-learning per se in this domain remains to be demonstrated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Training College Students to Use Learning Strategies: A Framework and Pilot Course

The use of effective study strategies is important for academic achievement, yet research indicates that students often use relatively ineffective learning strategies. Though potent strategies to promote durable learning exist, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical work on how to train students to self-regulate use of these strategies successfully. We summarize a novel framework to do so: the knowledge, belief, commitment, and planning ( KBCP) framework. The assumptions are that learners must develop knowledge about a strategy and how to use it, believe that the strategy is effective for the individual learner, commit to the strategy, and create an action plan for carrying it out. We then describe an example of the KBCP framework as applied to a college course on teaching students effective learning strategies and self-regulation of these strategies in their college coursework. Lectures on specific learning strategies conveyed knowledge about the strategies, in-class demonstrations illustrated their efficacy (to support belief), and assignments required students to develop a plan for applying them to their courses and to implement the plan (to ensure commitment). Discussion focuses on the implications of including training in how to use learning strategies in psychology courses and curricula, and on the possible extension of such training to the teaching of other psychology content.

Using Students' Concept-building Tendencies to Better Characterize Average-Performing Student Learning and Problem-Solving Approaches in General Chemistry

We previously reported that students' concept-building approaches, identified a priori using a cognitive psychology laboratory task, extend to learning complex science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics. This prior study examined student performance in both general and organic chemistry at a select research institution, after accounting for preparation. We found that abstraction learners (defined cognitively as learning the theory underlying related examples) performed higher on course exams than exemplar learners (defined cognitively as learning by memorizing examples). In the present paper, we further examined this initial finding by studying a general chemistry course using a different pedagogical approach (process-oriented guided-inquiry learning) at an institution focused on health science majors, and then extended our studies via think-aloud interviews to probe the effect concept-building approaches have on problem-solving behaviors of average exam performance students. From interviews with students in the average-achieving group, using problems at three transfer levels, we found that: 1) abstraction learners outperformed exemplar learners at all problem levels; 2) abstraction learners relied on understanding and exemplar learners dominantly relied on an algorithm without understanding at all problem levels; and 3) both concept-building-approach students had weaknesses in their metacognitive monitoring accuracy skills, specifically their postperformance confidence level in their solution accuracy.

Testing Effect on High-Level Cognitive Skills

The testing effect is one of the strongest learning techniques documented to date. Although the effects of testing on high-level learning are promising, fewer studies on this have been done. In this classroom application of the testing effect, we aimed to 1) determine whether a testing effect exists on high-level testing; 2) determine whether higher-level testing has an effect on low-level content retention; and 3) determine whether content knowledge, cognitive skill, or additional components are responsible for this effect. Through a series of two experiments, we confirmed a testing effect on high-level items. However, improved content retention due to testing was not observed. We suggest that this high-level testing effect is due to a better ability to apply specific skills to specific content when this application process has appeared on a previous exam.

Training Learning Strategies to Promote Self-Regulation and Transfer: The Knowledge, Belief, Commitment, and Planning Framework

Surveys indicate that at all educational levels students often use relatively ineffective study strategies. One potential remedy is to include learning-strategy training into students' educational experiences. A major challenge, however, is that it has proven difficult to design training protocols that support students' self-regulation and transfer of effective learning strategies across a range of content. In this article we propose a practical theoretical framework called the knowledge, belief, commitment, and planning (KBCP) framework for guiding strategy training to promote students' successful self-regulation of effective learning strategies. The KBCP framework rests on the assumption that four essential components must be included in training to support sustained strategy self-regulation: (a) acquiring knowledge about strategies, (b) belief that the strategy works, (c) commitment to using the strategy, and (d) planning of strategy implementation. We develop these assumptions in the context of pertinent research and suggest that each component alone is not sufficient to promote sustained learning-strategy self-regulation. Our intent in developing this learning-strategy training framework is to stimulate renewed interest and effort in investigating how to effectively train learning strategies and their self-regulation and to guide systematic research and application in this area. We close by sketching an example of a concrete training protocol based on the KBCP framework.

Individual and age differences in block-by-block dynamics of category learning strategies

The present experiment examined individual and age differences in the dynamics of category learning strategies. Participants learned categories determined by a disjunctive rule with relational features through a feedback training procedure. During training, participants responded to strategy probes following each block to provide online assessment of the extent to which rule- and exemplar-based strategies were used throughout the training period. We introduced this measure as an alternative to model-based approaches to assessing individual differences in strategy use during training. Following training, participants classified ambiguous transfer objects that were assumed to distinguish between earlier use of rule- and exemplar-based learning strategies. We included this measure to obtain a relatively objective index of strategy use during training. Next, participants provided global ratings of their use of rule- and exemplar-based strategies during training. Results showed that strategy preferences expressed on the final training block predicted categorisation of ambiguous transfer objects better than global strategy reports. In addition, we utilised the block-by-block strategy reports to investigate the dynamics of learners’ strategy preferences over the course of training. The findings revealed greater fluidity in strategy preferences for both younger and older adults than has been previously documented in the category learning literature. The novel block-by-block strategy reports in conjunction with the transfer-based approach allowed for a more nuanced examination of individual and age differences in strategy use and categorisation performance.

Online and Clicker Quizzing on Jargon Terms Enhances Definition-Focused but Not Conceptually Focused Biology Exam Performance

Mastery of jargon terms is an important part of student learning in biology and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains. In two experiments, we investigated whether prelecture quizzes enhance memory for jargon terms, and whether that enhanced familiarity can facilitate learning of related concepts that are encountered during subsequent lectures and readings. Undergraduate students enrolled in neuroanatomy and physiology courses completed 10-minute low-stakes quizzes with feedback on jargon terms either online (experiment 1) or using in-class clickers (experiment 2). Quizzes occurred before conventional course instruction in which the terms were used. On exams occurring up to 12 weeks later, we observed improved student performance on questions that targeted memory of previously quizzed jargon terms and their definitions relative to questions on terms that were not quizzed. This pattern occurred whether those questions were identical (experiment 1) or different (experiment 2) from those used during quizzing. Benefits of jargon quizzing did not consistently generalize, however, to exam questions that assessed conceptual knowledge but not necessarily jargon knowledge. Overall, this research demonstrates that a brief and easily implemented jargon-quizzing intervention, deliverable via Internet or in-class platforms, can yield substantial improvements in students' course-relevant scientific lexica, but does not necessarily impact conceptual learning.

Prospective Memory: Age related change is influenced by APOE genotype

Non-focal prospective memory (PM) is sensitive to age-related decline; an additional impairment in focal PM is characteristic of mild stage Alzheimer's disease. This research explored whether, by mid-adulthood, the distinct demands of focal and non-focal PM expose differences in carriers of an APOE ε4 allele, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Thirty-three young and 55 mid-age adults, differentiated by APOE genotype, completed a category-decision task with a concurrent focal or non-focal PM demand. Only mid-age ε4 carriers showed a cost of carrying a focal PM intention. In addition, mid-age ε4 carriers showed a significantly greater cost of carrying a non-focal PM intention than young ε4 carriers, supporting a profile of accelerated aging. Consistency in the profile of cost differences observed in mid-age ε4 carriers and pathological aging may indicate premature vulnerability. Future research correlating a shift in PM performance with early genotype differences in brain-based markers of decline is important.

Effects of specific-level versus broad-level training for broad-level category learning in a complex natural science domain

Category learning is a core component of course curricula in science education. For instance, geology courses teach categorization of rock types. Using the educationally authentic rock categories, the current project examined whether category learning at a broad-level (BL; igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks) could be enhanced by learning category information at a more specific-level (SL; e.g., diorite under igneous, breccia under sedimentary, etc.). Experiments 1 and 2 showed that SL training was inferior to BL training when participants were required to respond at the BL regardless of whether BL and SL category labels were presented simultaneously during classification training or SL categories were learned initially followed by training on the specific-broad level name associations. However, Experiments 3 and 4 showed that SL training was as good as BL training when the training was more extensive and participants were allowed to respond at the trained level. By considering confusion matrices (i.e., probabilities that instances in a given category was erroneously classified as belonging to other categories), we conjectured that between-SL category similarity, specifically the degree to which similar-looking SL categories belong to the same BL category, is an important factor in determining the efficacy of SL training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Participation in Voluntary Re-quizzing Is Predictive of Increased Performance on Cumulative Assessments in Introductory Biology

Low-stakes testing, or quizzing, is a formative assessment tool often used to structure course work. After students complete a quiz, instructors commonly encourage them to use those quizzes again to retest themselves near exam time (i.e., delayed re-quizzing). In this study, we examine student use of online, ungraded practice quizzes that are reopened near exam time after a first graded attempt 1-3 weeks prior. We find that, when controlling for preparation (performance in a previous science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] course and incoming biology knowledge), re-quizzing predicts better performance on two cumulative exams in introductory biology: a course posttest and final exam. Additionally, we describe a preliminary finding that, for the final exam, but not the posttest, re-quizzing benefits students with lower performance in a previous STEM course more than their higher-performing peers. But unfortunately, these struggling students are also less likely to participate in re-quizzing. Together, these data suggest that a common practice, reopening quizzes for practice near exam time, can effectively benefit student performance. This study adds to a growing body of literature that suggests quizzing can be used as both an assessment tool and a learning tool by showing that the "testing effect" extends to delayed re-quizzing within the classroom.

Event versus activity-based cues and motivation in school-related prospective memory tasks

Prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember an intention in the future, is essential to children’s everyday lives. We explored age differences (6- to 7- vs. 10- to 11-year-olds) in PM depending on the nature of the task and the children’s motivation. Children performed event-based PM tasks (in which the cue was presented during the ongoing activity) and activity-based PM tasks (in which the cue consisted of finishing the ongoing activity). Additionally, the children were assigned to either a reward condition or a no-reward condition. The results showed better performance in event than in activity based tasks, with older children outperforming younger children in both. There was a marginal effect of reward for PM accuracy. These patterns suggest that the cue detection process and children’s motivation play a role in PM performance during development.

Retrieval in prospective memory: Multiple processes or just delay?

In prospective memory (PM) research, a common finding is that PM accuracy is greater using focal, rather than nonfocal, cues. Under the multiprocess framework, the high PM performance for focal cues (cues that facilitate noticing of the target), often in the absence of task interference, reflects people's ability to rely on spontaneous retrieval processes. By contrast, nonfocal cues (cues that do not facilitate noticing) require monitoring. A competing explanation suggests that a single process underlies focal versus nonfocal PM: People adjust their delay in ongoing responding to allow enough time for PM information to reach awareness (delay theory). Participants' lower nonfocal performance arises because they fail to delay responding to a sufficient degree; with focal cues, the PM information accumulation rate is fast enough that no delay is necessary (and thus most everyone performs well). We sought to improve nonfocal PM performance by pairing a PM task with fast information accumulation to an ongoing task for which the requisite information accumulated more slowly. Reasoning from delay theory, we expected PM accuracy levels in this nonfocal PM task to approximate that observed in a focal PM task (for which the PM tasks were identical). In contrast to this expectation, the focal condition displayed significantly higher PM accuracy (despite demonstrating a reliably shorter response delay). In light of these findings, we concluded that the multiprocess interpretation is favoured.

Thought probes during prospective memory encoding: Evidence for perfunctory processes

For nearly 50 years, psychologists have studied prospective memory, or the ability to execute delayed intentions. Yet, there remains a gap in understanding as to whether initial encoding of the intention must be elaborative and strategic, or whether some components of successful encoding can occur in a perfunctory, transient manner. In eight studies (N = 680), we instructed participants to remember to press the Q key if they saw words representing fruits (cue) during an ongoing lexical decision task. They then typed what they were thinking and responded whether they encoded fruits as a general category, as specific exemplars, or hardly thought about it at all. Consistent with the perfunctory view, participants often reported mind wandering (42.9%) and hardly thinking about the prospective memory task (22.5%). Even though participants were given a general category cue, many participants generated specific category exemplars (34.5%). Bayesian analyses of encoding durations indicated that specific exemplars came to mind in a perfunctory manner rather than via strategic, elaborative mechanisms. Few participants correctly guessed the research hypotheses and changing from fruit category cues to initial-letter cues eliminated reports of specific exemplar generation, thereby arguing against demand characteristics in the thought probe procedure. In a final experiment, encoding duration was unrelated to prospective memory performance; however, specific-exemplar encoders outperformed general-category encoders with no ongoing task monitoring costs. Our findings reveal substantial variability in intention encoding, and demonstrate that some components of prospective memory encoding can be done "in passing."

Five Popular Study Strategies: Their Pitfalls and Optimal Implementations

Researchers’ and educators’ enthusiasm in applying cognitive principles to enhance educational practices has become more evident. Several published reviews have suggested that some potent strategies can help students learn more efficaciously. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, students do not report frequent reliance on these empirically supported techniques. In the present review, we take a novel approach, identifying study strategies for which students have strong preferences and assessing whether these preferred strategies have any merit given existing empirical evidence from the cognitive and educational literatures. Furthermore, we provide concrete recommendations for students, instructors, and psychologists. For students, we identify common pitfalls and tips for optimal implementation for each study strategy. For instructors, we provide recommendations for how they can assist students to more optimally implement these study strategies. For psychologists, we highlight promising avenues of research to help augment these study strategies.

Feature highlighting enhances learning of a complex natural-science category

Learning naturalistic categories, which tend to have fuzzy boundaries and vary on many dimensions, can often be harder than learning well defined categories. One method for facilitating the category learning of naturalistic stimuli may be to provide explicit feature descriptions that highlight the characteristic features of each category. Although this method is commonly used in textbooks and classrooms, theoretically it remains uncertain whether feature descriptions should advantage learning complex natural-science categories. In three experiments, participants were trained on 12 categories of rocks, either without or with a brief description highlighting key features of each category. After training, they were tested on their ability to categorize both old and new rocks from each of the categories. Providing feature descriptions as a caption under a rock image failed to improve category learning relative to providing only the rock image with its category label (Experiment 1). However, when these same feature descriptions were presented such that they were explicitly linked to the relevant parts of the rock image (feature highlighting), participants showed significantly higher performance on both immediate generalization to new rocks (Experiment 2) and generalization after a 2-day delay (Experiment 3). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Proceeding with care for successful prospective memory: Do we delay ongoing responding or actively monitor for cues?

In prospective memory (PM) research, costs (slowed responding to the ongoing task when a PM task is present relative to when it is not) have typically been interpreted as implicating an attentionally demanding monitoring process. To inform this interpretation, Heathcote, Loft, and Remington (2015), using an accumulator model, found that PM-related costs were associated with changes in a decision threshold parameter. This pattern was interpreted as disfavoring a monitoring process and supporting a non-capacity-consuming delayed responding strategy. The present study combined both behavioral and modeling techniques, as well as embedded parameter validation, to better illuminate the underlying processes involved in PM. We encouraged participants to use either a delayed responding or a monitoring strategy and used these conditions as anchor points for comparing a standard PM condition (with no strategy instructions). The monitoring strategy benefited PM more than did a delayed responding strategy. Most importantly, behaviors and modeling parameters associated with the standard PM instructions more closely reflected footprints of monitoring. Further, we found no individual model parameter that directly implicates monitoring behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

Effects of Encoding Strategy on Long-Term Memory for Odours

The effects of various encoding tasks on long-term recognition of odours were examined. Different groups of subjects were instructed (a) to form visual images of the source of the odour, (b) to generate the name of the odour and provide a dictionary-like definition, or (c) to describe a life episode of which the odour reminded them. A no-strategy control was simply told to try to remember the odours for a subsequent recognition test. One week later, subjects performed a yes–no recognition test for the odours. The second and third groups displayed significantly higher recognition than the controls. The visual imagery group did not differ significantly from the control group. The results seem to be accounted for best by dual coding theory.

Post-class naps boost declarative learning in a naturalistic school setting

Laboratory evidence of a positive effect of sleep on declarative memory consolidation suggests that naps can be used to boost school learning in a scalable, low-cost manner. The few direct investigations of this hypothesis have so far upheld it, but departed from the naturalistic setting by testing non-curricular contents presented by experimenters instead of teachers. Furthermore, nap and non-nap groups were composed of different children. Here we assessed the effect of post-class naps on the retention of Science and History curricular contents presented by the regular class teacher to 24 students from 5th grade. Retention was repeatedly measured 3-4 days after content learning, with weekly group randomization over 6 consecutive weeks. Contents followed by long naps (>30 min), but not short naps (<30 min), were significantly more retained than contents followed by waking (Cohen's d = 0.7962). The results support the use of post-class morning naps to enhance formal education.

Improving Prospective Memory in Healthy Older Adults and Individuals with Very Mild Alzheimer's Disease

OBJECTIVES

To test the utility of a memory-encoding strategy for improving prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember to execute future goals (e.g., remembering to take medications), which plays an important role in independent living in healthy older adults and those with very mild Alzheimer's disease (AD).

DESIGN

Participants were randomly assigned to an encoding strategy condition or a standard encoding condition.

SETTING

A longitudinal study conducted at an Alzheimer's disease research center. Testing took place at the center and in a university testing room.

PARTICIPANTS

Healthy older adults (Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) = 0.0, n = 38) and those classified as being in the very mild stage of AD (CDR = 0.5, n = 34).

INTERVENTION

A simple strategy ("If I see Cue X, then I will perform Intention Y") was used to strengthen PM encoding and reduce the probability of forgetting to execute one's future plans.

MEASUREMENTS

PM was assessed using Virtual Week, a laboratory task that requires the simulation of common PM tasks (the types of tasks performed in everyday life), such as taking one's medication at breakfast.

RESULTS

The encoding strategy significantly reduced PM failures in healthy older adults and those with very mild AD and was effective regardless of the individual's episodic memory ability.

CONCLUSION

This encoding strategy was successful in reducing PM errors in healthy older adults and those with mild AD with a range of memory abilities.

Improving Prospective Memory in Persons With Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Prospective memory (PM) is essential for productive and independent living and necessary for compliance with prescribed health behaviors. Parkinson disease (PD) can cause PM deficits that are associated with activity limitations and reduced quality of life. Forming implementation intentions (IIs) is an encoding strategy that may improve PM in this population.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the effect of IIs on PM performance in PD.

METHODS

This was a laboratory-based randomized controlled trial. Participants with mild to moderate PD without dementia (n = 62) performed a computerized PM test (Virtual Week) under standard instructions. One week later they were randomly allocated to perform it again while using either IIs or a rehearsal (RR) encoding strategy.

RESULTS

PM performance was better with the use of both strategies relative to standard instructions. This effect was larger for tasks with event-based compared with time-based cues. In addition, IIs resulted in a larger effect than RR for the nonrepeated tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Strategies that support full encoding of PM cues and actions can improve PM performance among people with PD, particularly for tasks with cues that are readily available in the environment. IIs may be more effective than RR for nonrepeated tasks, but this finding warrants verification. Future work should address transfer of strategy use from the laboratory to everyday life. Targeted strategies to manage PM impairment could improve function and quality of life and significantly affect clinical care for people with PD.

On Learning Natural-Science Categories That Violate the Family-Resemblance Principle

The general view in psychological science is that natural categories obey a coherent, family-resemblance principle. In this investigation, we documented an example of an important exception to this principle: Results of a multidimensional-scaling study of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks (Experiment 1) suggested that the structure of these categories is disorganized and dispersed. This finding motivated us to explore what might be the optimal procedures for teaching dispersed categories, a goal that is likely critical to science education in general. Subjects in Experiment 2 learned to classify pictures of rocks into compact or dispersed high-level categories. One group learned the categories through focused high-level training, whereas a second group was required to simultaneously learn classifications at a subtype level. Although high-level training led to enhanced performance when the categories were compact, subtype training was better when the categories were dispersed. We provide an interpretation of the results in terms of an exemplar-memory model of category learning.

The interaction between frontal functioning and encoding processes in reducing false memories

Studies suggest that age differences in false memories may be related to deficits in frontal lobe functioning (FLF; Butler, McDaniel, Dornburg, Price, & Roediger, 2004, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 921). In addition, research has demonstrated that item-specific encoding can reduce false memories in younger adults ( Arndt & Reder, 2003, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 830). In the present study we examined whether younger and older adults who perform poorly on tests designed to assess frontal function would be less likely to benefit from item-specific encoding in a false memory paradigm. In three experiments, participants studied categorized word or picture lists. Encoding manipulations were designed to emphasize either item-specific or relational processing. Younger adults and high FLF older adults showed a reduction in false memories when item-specific processing was implemented. However, low FLF older adults showed a reduction in false memories only when relational processing was impoverished. Results suggest that frontal function directly influences the engagement in distinctive encoding processes.

Prospective Memory

An interesting challenge for researchers who study prospective memory is to explain how people recognize environmental events as cues for actions. Whereas some theorists propose that a capacity-consuming monitoring process is the only means by which intentions can be retrieved, we argue that the cognitive system relies on multiple processes, including spontaneous processes that reflexively respond to the presence of target events. We present evidence for the existence of spontaneous retrieval processes and apply the idea of multiple processes to mixed findings on age-related decline in prospective memory.

Why are you late? Investigating the role of time management in time-based prospective memory

Time-based prospective memory tasks (TBPM) are those that are to be performed at a specific future time. Contrary to typical laboratory TBPM tasks (e.g., hit the Z key every 5 min), many real-world TBPM tasks require more complex time-management processes. For instance, to attend an appointment on time, one must estimate the duration of the drive to the appointment and then use this estimate to create and execute a secondary TBPM intention (e.g., "I need to start driving by 1:30 to make my 2:00 appointment on time"). Future under- and overestimates of drive time can lead to inefficient TBPM performance with the former lending to missed appointments and the latter to long stints in the waiting room. Despite the common occurrence of complex TBPM tasks in everyday life, to date, no studies have investigated how components of time management, including time estimation, affect behavior in such complex TBPM tasks. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate timing biases in both older and younger adults and, further, to determine how such biases along with additional time management components including planning and plan fidelity influence complex TBPM performance. Results suggest for the first time that younger and older adults do not always utilize similar timing strategies, and as a result, can produce differential timing biases under the exact same environmental conditions. These timing biases, in turn, play a vital role in how efficiently both younger and older adults perform a later TBPM task that requires them to utilize their earlier time estimate. (PsycINFO Database Record

Category learning strategies in younger and older adults: Rule abstraction and memorization

Despite the fundamental role of category learning in cognition, few studies have examined how this ability differs between younger and older adults. The present experiment examined possible age differences in category learning strategies and their effects on learning. Participants were trained on a category determined by a disjunctive rule applied to relational features. The utilization of rule- and exemplar-based strategies was indexed by self-reports and transfer performance. Based on self-reported strategies, the frequencies of rule- and exemplar-based learners were not significantly different between age groups, but there was a significantly higher frequency of intermediate learners (i.e., learners not identifying with a reliance on either rule- or exemplar-based strategies) in the older than younger adult group. Training performance was higher for younger than older adults regardless of the strategy utilized, showing that older adults were impaired in their ability to learn the correct rule or to remember exemplar-label associations. Transfer performance converged with strategy reports in showing higher fidelity category representations for younger adults. Younger adults with high working memory capacity were more likely to use an exemplar-based strategy, and older adults with high working memory capacity showed better training performance. Age groups did not differ in their self-reported memory beliefs, and these beliefs did not predict training strategies or performance. Overall, the present results contradict earlier findings that older adults prefer rule- to exemplar-based learning strategies, presumably to compensate for memory deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record

An implementation intention strategy can improve prospective memory in older adults with very mild Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVES

This study tested whether (1) very mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with impaired prospective memory (PM) for tasks that are supported by either spontaneous retrieval (focal PM) or strategic monitoring (non-focal PM) and (2) implementation intention (II) encoding could improve PM performance in very mild AD.

DESIGN

Thirty-eight healthy older adults and 34 with very mild AD were randomly assigned to perform two PM tasks in either the standard or the II encoding condition.

METHOD

All participants performed blocks of category decision in which they were asked to respond to a focal PM target (e.g., the word 'orange') and a non-focal PM target (e.g., words that begin with the letter 'o'). Half of the participants encoded PM instructions in the standard manner, while the other half had a stronger encoding by forming IIs. PM accuracy and category decision accuracy and reaction times were measured.

RESULTS

Participants with very mild AD showed deficits in both focal and non-focal PM performance compared to the healthy controls, reflecting deficits in both spontaneous retrieval and strategic monitoring. Participants with very mild AD in the II encoding condition showed better focal PM performance relative to those in the standard encoding condition.

CONCLUSIONS

Deficits in both focal and non-focal PM are associated with very mild AD and IIs may be a helpful behavioural intervention for the focal PM deficits.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

Multiple deficits in PM are observable in very mild AD. Implementation intentions may enhance focal PM in very mild AD. Future research using larger samples is needed to better understand the effect of II on non-focal PM tasks in healthy older adults and those with very mild AD. The use of simple laboratory PM tasks may limit the generality of our findings. Future research is needed to investigate whether IIs improve PM over a range of more realistic tasks.

Habitual Prospective Memory and Aging: Remembering Intentions and Forgetting Actions

Routine or habitual prospective memory tasks (e.g., taking medication) have the potential for creating confusions regarding whether or not an action has already been performed. We developed a laboratory paradigm for examining the kinds of processes thought to be operating in these kinds of tasks. Younger and older participants were asked to perform an action once and only once on each of 11 trials. The results showed that age and divided attention contributed to both omission and repetition errors. This new paradigm reveals memory failures in a habitual prospective memory task, and the results demonstrate that older adults are particularly susceptible to these memory problems.

Cue Competition Effects: Empirical Tests of Adaptive Network Learning Models

The ability to predict future consequences on the basis of previous experience with the current set of environmental cues is one of the most fundamental of all cognitive processes. This study investigated how the validity of one cue influences the effectiveness of another cue for predicting a criterion. The results demonstrate a cue competition effect—increasing the validity of one cue decreased the effectiveness of another cue in a linear prediction task, even though the two cues were statistically independent.

Cue Competition Effects: Theoretical Implications for Adaptive Network Learning Models

A feature-free method for testing adaptive network learning models is presented. The test is based on a property called the mean matching law, a. property shared by many adaptive network models of learning. As an application of this method, we prove that cue competition effects obtained with statistically independent cues cannot be explained by many previous adaptive network learning models, including those based on the delta learning rule. These results point to the need to incorporate competitive learning properties into adaptive network learning models.

When does the test-study-test sequence optimize learning and retention?

In educational learning contexts, unlike typical contemporary laboratory paradigms, students have repeated opportunities to study and learn target material, thereby potentially allowing different sequences of testing and studying. We investigated learning and retention after several plausible sequences that were patterned on a classic memory paradigm. After initially reading a research methods text, 2 days later in 1 condition participants repeatedly restudied the material 3 times (SSS), in another condition they engaged in a test-restudy-test sequence (TST), and in a third condition participants repeatedly tested on the studied material (3 times: TTT). Participants received a final test 5 days later. In Experiment 1, both TST and TTT produced better final performance than did SSS; however, TST was not better than TTT. In Experiment 2 the TST condition was altered so that after the first test, correct/incorrect feedback was provided and the test and feedback were available during the study phase. With this protocol, TST produced better learning and retention than did TTT or SSS. These findings suggest possible critical aspects regarding test feedback and the availability of previous tests for helping students to optimize their restudy efforts after low- or no-stakes quizzes.

The curious case of orthographic distinctiveness: Disruption of categorical processing

How does orthographic distinctiveness affect recall of structured (categorized) word lists? On one theory, enhanced item-specific information (e.g., more distinct encoding) in concert with robust relational information (e.g., categorical information) optimally supports free recall. This predicts that for categorically structured lists, orthographically distinct (OD) word lists should be recalled better than orthographically common (OC) word lists. Another possibility is that OD items produce a far-reaching impairment in relational processing, including that of categorical information. This view anticipates an advantage in recall for OC items relative to OD lists. In Experiment 1 categorically structured OC lists produced better recall performance and higher clustering than did categorically structured OD lists. When words were presented in capital letters, thereby minimizing orthographic distinctiveness, OC and OD lists showed equivalent recall and category clustering (Experiment 2). When recall was cued with category labels, OC items were still better recalled than OD items (Experiment 3). These patterns, along with category access and items-per-category recalled, are consistent with the interpretation that orthographic distinctiveness creates a disruption in encoding of inter-item associations within a category. This interpretation expands previous work indicating that orthographic distinctiveness disrupts encoding of serial order information, another kind of inter-item association. (PsycINFO Database Record

Dual pathways to prospective remembering

According to the multiprocess framework (McDaniel and Einstein, 2000), the cognitive system can support prospective memory (PM) retrieval through two general pathways. One pathway depends on top–down attentional control processes that maintain activation of the intention and/or monitor the environment for the triggering or target cues that indicate that the intention should be executed. A second pathway depends on (bottom–up) spontaneous retrieval processes, processes that are often triggered by a PM target cue; critically, spontaneous retrieval is assumed not to require monitoring or active maintenance of the intention. Given demand characteristics associated with experimental settings, however, participants are often inclined to monitor, thereby potentially masking discovery of bottom–up spontaneous retrieval processes. In this article, we discuss parameters of laboratory PM paradigms to discourage monitoring and review recent behavioral evidence from such paradigms that implicate spontaneous retrieval in PM. We then re-examine the neuro-imaging evidence from the lens of the multiprocess framework and suggest some critical modifications to existing neuro-cognitive interpretations of the neuro-imaging results. These modifications illuminate possible directions and refinements for further neuro-imaging investigations of PM.

Prospective Memory Training: Outlining a New Approach

Prospective memory (PM) tasks are those that must be performed in the future (e.g., attend an appointment). While these everyday tasks can be especially relevant for older adults (i.e., medication adherence), and have been associated with age-related decline, PM has been virtually overlooked in the cognitive training domain. This article describes the first comprehensive PM training intervention. Older adults (age 55 to 75) who received training completed 8 weekly PM training sessions that consisted of variable PM training tasks, strategy-focused discussion, and homework assignments. Those assigned to a control group completed only the first and last training task. On both a real-world proxy PM transfer task and the training tasks detailed here, there was a positive impact of PM training, suggesting practical benefits of the current training package for older adults. Benefits may also extend to other special populations who experience PM impairments (e.g., traumatic brain injury [TBI], Parkinson's).