AI Article Synopsis

  • The Nelson and Narens general knowledge norms from 1980 have been widely used by researchers, but significant cultural changes over the years highlight the need for updates.
  • In 2012, many people no longer knew answers to questions that were common knowledge in 1980, demonstrating generational shifts in knowledge.
  • The updated norms include new metacognitive measures such as confidence judgments and peer judgments, which can enhance research in areas like memory and error correction.

Article Abstract

The Nelson and Narens (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 19:338-368, 1980) general knowledge norms have been valuable to researchers in many fields. However, much has changed over the 32 years since the 1980 norms. For example, in 1980, most people knew the answer to the question "What is the name of the Lone Ranger's Indian sidekick?" (answer: Tonto), whereas in 2012, few people know this answer. Thus, we updated the 1980 norms and expanded them by providing new measures. In particular, we report two new metacognitive measures (confidence judgments and peer judgments) and provide a detailed report of commission errors. Each of these measures will be valuable to researchers, and together they are likely to facilitate future research in a number of fields, such as research investigating memory illusions, metamemory processes, and error correction. The presence of substantial generational shifts from 1980 to 2012 necessitates the use of updated norms.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0307-9DOI Listing

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