Remembering Responses and Cognitive Estimates of Knowing: The Effects of Instructions, Retrieval Sequences, and Feedback

Two experiments examined the effects of feedback on a person's ability to recall their responses to multiple-choice items and the confidence with which they made those responses within the context of a control theory of feedback processing. In Experiment 1, instructions to remember answers and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inContemporary educational psychology Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 147 - 164
Main Authors Webb, James M., Pridemore, Doris R., Stock, William A., Kulhavy, Raymond W., Henning, John E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.04.1997
Elsevier
Subjects
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition. Intelligence
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Intellectual and cognitive abilities
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Human
Learning
Memory retrieval
Semantic memory
Decision making
Young adult
Information processing
Cognition
Recall
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ISSN0361-476X
1090-2384
DOI10.1006/ceps.1997.0928

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Summary:Two experiments examined the effects of feedback on a person's ability to recall their responses to multiple-choice items and the confidence with which they made those responses within the context of a control theory of feedback processing. In Experiment 1, instructions to remember answers and confidence ratings (instructions vs no instructions) were varied with feedback for responding (feedback vs no feedback). In Experiment 2, all subjects received instructions to remember their responses, and feedback was varied with retrieval cue sequence: answer given first vs confidence rating given first. Feedback reduced the rate of error perseveration and decreased the likelihood of retrieving original answers. Subjects allocated more time to study feedback when they erred with a high level of confidence that they were correct. Subjects took less time to retrieve confidence ratings when they were given the answer first as a retrieval cue. Instructions to remember had no effect on recall. Results suggest that learners closely monitor their personal estimates of knowing in an effort to regulate future learning. The relationship of these personal estimates to feedback also provides an explanation for the phenomenon of hindsight bias.
ISSN:0361-476X
1090-2384
DOI:10.1006/ceps.1997.0928