Beliefs about Memory as a Mediator of Relations between Metacognitive Beliefs and Actual Memory Performance

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to investigate relationships between personal beliefs about memory, metacognitive beliefs, and actual memory performance. One hundred thirty-seven participants' (aged 20 to 60 years) metacognitive beliefs were measured using the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ-30), memory beliefs were measured using the Personal Beliefs about Memory Instrument (PBMI), and an episodic memory task was used to measure actual memory performance, memory predictions, and postdictions. Younger adults had lower scores on the positive beliefs subfactor of the MCQ-30, higher scores on retrospective change and control subfactors of the PBMI, and outperformed middle-aged adults on recall and recall postdiction. Path analysis showed that individuals' beliefs about memory mediate the relationship between metacognitive beliefs and actual memory performance. Specifically, low lack of confidence (or less worry) in one's own memory and attentional capabilities was related to higher memory performance and positive personal beliefs regarding specific memory ability mediated relationship.

Relationships between Age, Subjective Memory, Metacognition and Thought-Action Fusion

“…Consistent with previous results [1,9,44,45] although late middle-aged participants scored lower on the cognitive confidence subscale than younger and middle-aged changes in their memory also had higher (more negative) scores on MCQ-30 subscales. However, neither TAF-moral nor TAF-probability subscales were related to reliability of memory and retrospective changes in memory.…”

“…Our results have revealed a significant effect of age on aspects of memory beliefs, namely, about retrospective changes in memory and reliability of memory, with young adults showing more positive beliefs than middle-aged and late middle-aged individuals. Also, consistent with previous studies [2,44,47,48], the young adult group held more positive views about memory and reported less cognitive failure compared to the middle-aged and late middle-aged groups. Our results support the suggestion by Berger and Thompson [43] that holding negative beliefs about cognitive abilities and of middle-and old age implicitly and prejudicially affects cognitive performance.…”

“…According to Berger and Thompson, [43] holding a negative view of metacognitive beliefs, cognitive abilities or of old age implicitly and prejudicially affects cognitive performance. Supporting this, Irak and Çapan [44] showed that middleaged adults had more negative beliefs about memory than young adults. Thus, the effect of age on relationships between metacognitive beliefs might be driven by changes in attitudes towards beliefs about memory, including changes in memory and reliability of memory.…”

Do intuitive ideas of the qualities that should characterize involuntary and voluntary memories affect their classification?

“…Tajrishi, Mohammadkhani, & Jadidi, 2011 ), memory performance (e.g. Horhota et al, 2012 ; Irak & Çapan, 2018 ), social functioning (Bright et al 2018 ), spontaneous thinking (for a review see Morewedge & Kupor, 2018 ), and well-being (Sellers, Varese, Wells, Morrison, 2017 ; Østefjells et al, 2017 ), to name just a few.…”

Self-reported, but not lab-based, prospective memory failures relate to PTSD symptom severity in a general population.

“…Another possibility is that negative appraisals encourage poor PM behaviors, for example, if people with PTSD believe their memory is poor, they might stop effortfully encoding and recalling intentions—or bias how people report these behaviors—they might report consistent with their appraisals. We know that more generally, metamemory judgments (i.e., memory self-efficacy, metacognitive beliefs) are associated with retrospective and PM performance—for example, recalling word lists, pressing a target key every 2 min (e.g., Irak & Çapan, 2018; Kliegel & Jäger, 2006; see Beaudoin & Desrichard, 2011, for review)—and that people’s appraisals of their memory and cognitive abilities correlate with self-report PM (i.e., Swain & Takarangi, 2021). However, we know of no existing evidence that appraisals directly change PM behaviors .…”