Day: May 31, 2014

Predictors of college retention/success.

In a recent investigation completed with Randy Isaacson and Tara Beziat, it was found that high school GPA and SAT scores did not predict retention as well as GPA in the first semester. It was also found that first semester GPA was a good predictor of retention and student progression. Now, this is not surprising. What is important, is that individual differences in students’ knowledge monitoring accuracy was correlated with student GPA. Further, knowledge monitoring accuracy increased following a semester of simple training.

This article is accessible from the following links:

http://nrmera.org/researcher.html 

http://nrmera.org/PDF/Researcher/Researcherv26n1Beziat_et%20al.pdf


The effects of distraction on metacognition and metacognition on distraction

Beaman CP, Hanczakowski M and Jones DM (2014) The effects of distraction on metacognition and metacognition on distraction: evidence from recognition memory. Front. Psychol. 5:439. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00439

http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00439/abstract (open source full text)

According to the authors (p. 11), “The results documented in our study with free-report tests also reveal that effects of distraction do not end with impairing memory processes. Auditory distraction has important consequences for how accurate people are in monitoring their memory processes, as revealed by impaired resolution of confidence judgments under distraction. Even more importantly, auditory distraction modifies metacognitive control and thus shapes performance when the “don’t know”option is available in a memory test. Participants seem to be aware that auditory distraction is harmful for memory as they become much less confident in their correct responses when distraction is present (see also Ellermeier and Zimmer, 1997; Beaman, 2005b).