Allocation of self-paced study time and the "labor-in-vain effect".
This research explored the possibility that a metacognitive control process (namely, the allocation of self-paced study time) might be affected by the output from metacognitive monitoring processes (i.e., ease-of-learning and/or feeling-of-knowing judgments). In three experiments, university undergraduates received instructions that emphasized either accuracy of learning or speed of learning. The major findings were: (a) ease-of-learning judgments and feeling-of-knowing judgments are reliably related to study-time allocation, with more self-paced study time being allocated to the supposedly more difficult items; (b) even when instructed to master every item and when allowed unlimited study time to do so, people terminate study before learning is completed; and (c) large increases in self-paced study time can yield little or no increase in the subsequent likelihood of recall (the "labor-in-vain effect"). Implications are drawn for a model of the interplay between metacognitive monitoring processes and metacognitive control processes.
Nelson
T O
TO
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
Leonesio
R J
RJ
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning