Blocked Presentation Leads Participants to Overutilize Domain Familiarity as a Cue for Judgments of Learning (JOLs).

The accuracy of judgments of learning (JOLs) is vital for efficient self-regulated learning. We examined a situation in which participants overutilize their prior knowledge of a topic ("domain familiarity") as a basis for JOLs, resulting in substantial overconfidence in topics they know the most about. College students rank ordered their knowledge across ten different domains and studied, judged, and then completed a test on facts from those domains.

The animacy advantage in memory occurs under self-paced study conditions, but participants' metacognitive beliefs can deter it.

Introduction: Animacy distinguishes living (animate) things from non-living (inanimate) things. People tend to devote attention and processing to living over nonliving things, resulting in a privileged status for animate concepts in human cognition. For example, people tend to remember more animate than inanimate items, a phenomenon known as the "animacy effect" or "animacy advantage.

Within-pair factors might explain the inconsistent effects of animacy on paired-associates recall.

The tendency for people to have better memory for animate (living) concepts than inanimate (nonliving) concepts in memory tasks involving free recall and recognition suggests that animacy status can be an important predictor of memory. To date, however, the effect of animacy on paired-associates recall has been mixed: Some studies have found an animacy advantage, some have found an animacy disadvantage, and some have found no difference by animacy. We tested the hypothesis that the within-pair relationship of the two words in a pair matters more for cued recall than animacy itself.

Animate and Inanimate Words Demonstrate Equivalent Retrieval Dynamics Despite the Occurrence of the Animacy Advantage.

People demonstrate a memory advantage for animate (living) concepts over inanimate (nonliving) concepts in a variety of memory tasks, including free recall, but we do not know the mechanism(s) that produces this effect. We compared the retrieval dynamics (serial-position effects, probability of first recall, output order, categorical clustering, and recall contiguity) of animate and inanimate words in a typical free recall task to help elucidate this effect. Participants were more likely to recall animate than inanimate words, but we found few, if any, differences in retrieval dynamics by word type.

Delayed Judgments of Learning Are Associated With Activation of Information From Past Experiences: A Neurobiological Examination.

Research in metacognition suggests that the information people use to predict their memory performance can vary depending on the contexts in which they make their predictions. For example, if people judge their memories after a delay from initial encoding, they may be more likely to use retrieved information about the past encoding experience than if they judged memories immediately after encoding. Although this seems intuitive, past behavioral and neuroimaging work has not tested whether delayed memory judgments are more strongly coupled with information about past experiences than immediate memory judgments.

Forget framing might involve the assumption of mastery, but probably does not activate the notion of forgetting.

Soliciting predictions about hypothetical memory performance (without having participants engage in a related memory task) is a simple way for researchers to examine people's metacognitive beliefs about how memory functions. Using this methodology, researchers can vary what information is provided as part of the scenario or how the memory prediction is framed to examine how such factors alter people's memory predictions. For example, Koriat, Bjork, Sheffer, and Bar (2004) found that participants would factor expected retention intervals into their memory predictions (worse performance over longer intervals) when they were asked to predict future forgetting, but not when they were asked to predict future remembering.

Rule activation and ventromedial prefrontal engagement support accurate stopping in self-paced learning.

When weighing evidence for a decision, individuals are continually faced with the choice of whether to gather more information or act on what has already been learned. The present experiment employed a self-paced category learning task and fMRI to examine the neural mechanisms underlying stopping of information search and how they contribute to choice accuracy. Participants learned to classify triads of face, object, and scene cues into one of two categories using a rule based on one of the stimulus dimensions.

The animacy advantage for free-recall performance is not attributable to greater mental arousal.

People often demonstrate better memory for animate concepts (e.g., lion and sailor) than for inanimate concepts (e.

Framing affects scale usage for judgments of learning, not confidence in memory.

Framing metacognitive judgments of learning (JOLs) in terms of the likelihood of forgetting rather than remembering consistently yields a counterintuitive outcome: The mean of participants' forget-framed JOLs is often higher (after reverse-scoring) than the mean of their remember-framed JOLs, suggesting greater confidence in memory. In the present experiments, we tested 2 competing explanations for this pattern of results. The optimistic-anchoring hypothesis suggests that forget-framed JOLs are associated with greater optimism about memory than are remember-framed JOLs, which leads to their greater magnitude.

Unskilled and unaware in the classroom: College students' desired grades predict their biased grade predictions.

People tend to be overconfident when predicting their performance on a variety of physical and mental tasks (i.e., they predict they will perform better than they actually do).

Adaptive memory: Animacy enhances free recall but impairs cued recall.

Recent research suggests that human memory systems evolved to remember animate things better than inanimate things. In the present experiments, we examined whether these effects occur for both free recall and cued recall. In Experiment 1, we directly compared the effect of animacy on free recall and cued recall.

Low-Dose Alteplase Infusion for the Treatment of Mechanical Aortic Valve Thrombosis: A Spotlight on the Importance of Medication Adherence.

A rare, yet serious, complication of mechanical heart valves is symptomatic obstructive prosthetic valve thrombosis. The risk of valve thrombosis is magnified in patients who are nonadherent to prescribed anticoagulation. In this case report, we describe a 48-year-old male patient with a history of mechanical aortic valve replacement surgery, who stopped taking prescribed warfarin therapy 2 years before presentation and subsequently developed acute decompensated heart failure secondary to valvular dysfunction.

People use the memory for past-test heuristic as an explicit cue for judgments of learning.

When people estimate their memory for to-be-learned material over multiple study-test trials, they tend to base their judgments of learning (JOLs) on their test performance for those materials on the previous trial. Their use of this information-known as the memory for past-test (MPT) heuristic-is believed to be responsible for improvements in the relative accuracy (resolution) of people's JOLs across learning trials. Although participants seem to use past-test information as a major basis for their JOLs, little is known about how learners translate this information into a judgment of learning.

Examining competing hypotheses for the effects of diagrams on recall for text.

Supplementing text-based learning materials with diagrams typically increases students' free recall and cued recall of the presented information. In the present experiments, we examined competing hypotheses for why this occurs. More specifically, although diagrams are visual, they also serve to repeat information from the text they accompany.

Domain familiarity as a cue for judgments of learning.

Students differ in how much they already know about topics within and across their courses. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between participants' levels of knowledge across topics (i.e.

Magnitude and accuracy differences between judgements of remembering and forgetting.

Metacognition researchers have recently begun to examine the effects of framing judgements of learning (JOLs) in terms of forgetting (rather than remembering) on the judgements' magnitude and accuracy. Although a promising new direction for the study of metamemory, initial studies have yielded inconsistent results. To help resolve these inconsistencies, in four experiments we had college students (N = 434) study paired associates and make JOLs framed in terms of either remembering or forgetting over two study-test trials.

The contributions of anchoring and past-test performance to the underconfidence-with-practice effect.

In the underconfidence-with-practice effect, people's judgments of learning (JOLs) typically underestimate memory performance across multiple study-test phases. Whereas the past-test hypothesis suggests that this underconfidence stems from participants' reliance on earlier test performance to make subsequent JOLs (despite new learning), the anchoring hypothesis suggests that the underconfidence stems from participants' reliance on a fixed psychological anchor point low on the JOL scale to make their JOLs. To contrast the predictions of these hypotheses, we had college students study, make JOLs, and test over several dozen paired-associate items across two study-test phases.

Stimulation with a low-amplitude, digitized synaptic signal to invoke robust activity within neuronal networks on multielectrode arrays.

Multielectrode arrays (MEAs) are used for analysis of neuronal activity. Here we report two variations on commonly accepted techniques that increase the precision of extracellular electrical stimulation: (i) the use of a low-amplitude recorded spontaneous synaptic signal as a stimulus waveform and (ii) the use of a specific electrode within the array adjacent to the stimulus electrode as a hard-grounded stimulus signal return path. Both modifications remained compatible with manipulation of neuronal networks.

Metacomprehension judgements reflect the belief that diagrams improve learning from text.

In two experiments we systematically explored whether people consider the format of text materials when judging their text learning, and whether doing so might inappropriately bias their judgements. Participants studied either text with diagrams (multimedia) or text alone and made both per-paragraph judgements and global judgements of their text learning. In Experiment 1 they judged their learning to be better for text with diagrams than for text alone.

Inhibitory neurons modulate spontaneous signaling in cultured cortical neurons: density-dependent regulation of excitatory neuronal signaling.

Cortical neuronal activity depends on a balance between excitatory and inhibitory influences. Culturing of neurons on multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) has provided insight into the development and maintenance of neuronal networks. Herein, we seeded MEAs with murine embryonic cortical/hippocampal neurons at different densities (<150 or >1000 cells mm(-2)) and monitored resultant spontaneous signaling.

Diagrams increase the recall of nondepicted text when understanding is also increased.

Multimedia presentations typically produce better memory and understanding than do single-medium presentations. Little research, however, has considered the effect of multimedia on memory for nonmultimedia information within a large multimedia presentation (e.g.

Folate and S-adenosylmethionine modulate synaptic activity in cultured cortical neurons: acute differential impact on normal and apolipoprotein-deficient mice.

Folate deficiency is accompanied by a decline in the cognitive neurotransmitter acetylcholine and a decline in cognitive performance in mice lacking apolipoprotein E (ApoE-/- mice), a low-density lipoprotein that regulates aspects of lipid metabolism. One direct consequence of folate deficiency is a decline in S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). Since dietary SAM supplementation maintains acetylcholine levels and cognitive performance in the absence of folate, we examined herein the impact of folate and SAM on neuronal synaptic activity.

A low-cost interface for multi-electrode array data acquisition systems.

Multi-electrode array systems have enabled the in vitro electrophysiological study of neuronal networks. The data processing component of these systems consists of an advanced computer system and data acquisition electronics that collectively cost more than the multi-electrode arrays and amplifiers. Considering that these elaborate systems may be cost-prohibitive for many laboratories, we have developed a simple but novel method for recording groups of related multi-electrode array channels with a low-cost data acquisition system.