title: Judgments of learning and the allocation of study time.
abstract: This is a commentary on the article by G. Mazzoni and C. Cornoldi (1993), in which they proposed an "item labor-in-vain effect" that they said is similar to the labor-in-vain effect reported by T. O. Nelson and R. J. Leonesio (1988). This commentary describes how the 2 effects differ in terms of the role of item selection and offers several comments about (and different interpretations of) Mazzoni and Cornoldi's findings. People's judgments of learning can serve as a useful basis to enhance overall learning by means of the allocation of extra study to the more difficult items. However, depending on the trade-off between the boost from extra study and the deficit from item selection, the effects of the extra study may or may not be evident in recall performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
authors.forename: T O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D007858:Learning; D011939:Mental Recall; D011214:Practice, Psychological