Does a time-monitoring deficit influence older adults' delayed retrieval shift during skill acquisition?

Abstract

Abstract:The authors evaluated age-related time-monitoring deficits and their contribution to older adults' reluctance to shift to memory retrieval in the noun-pair lookup (NP) task. Older adults (M = 67 years) showed slower rates of response time (RT) improvements than younger adults (M = 19 years), because of a delayed strategy shift. Older adults estimated scanning latencies as being faster than they actually were and showed poor resolution in discriminating short from long RTs early in practice. The difference in estimated RT for retrieval and scanning strategies predicted retrieval use, independent of actual RT differences. Separate scanning and recognition memory tasks revealed larger time-monitoring differences for older adults than in the NP task. Apparently, the context of heterogeneous RTs as a result of strategy use in the NP task improved older adults' accuracy of RT estimates. RT feedback had complex effects on time-monitoring accuracy, although it generally improved absolute and relative accuracy of RT estimates. Feedback caused older adults to shift more rapidly to the retrieval strategy in the NP task. Results suggest that deficient time monitoring plays a role in older adults' delayed retrieval shift, although other factors (e.g., confidence in the retrieval strategy) also play a role. Article:Monitoring internal states and behavioral outcomes is a critical component of adaptive self-regulation in cognitive tasks (Koriat, Goldsmith, & Pansky, 2000;Nelson, 1996;Shallice & Burgess, 1991). Research on metamemory and aging indicates that older adults monitor encoding and retrieval processes with equivalent accuracy compared with young adults, despite major age differences in episodic memory performance itself (e.g.,

Self-controlled knowledge of results: Age-related differences in motor learning, strategies, and error detection

“…Compared to younger adults, older adults self-select practice strategies requiring minimal cognitive effort (e.g., recognition) for word association tasks and novel arithmetic problems compared to the cognitively effortful strategies (e.g., retrieval) considered advantageous for learning (D'Eredita & Hoyer, 2010;Hertzog, Touron, & Hines, 2007;Rogers & Gilbert, 1997;Rogers, Hertzog, & Fisk, 2000;Touron & Hertzog, 2004a, 2004bTouron, Hoyer, & Cerella, 2004). Older adults' propensity to individualize a learning context that places low demands on their cognitive processes not only results in a less than favorable learning context but also suggests an explicit awareness of their age-related changes to information processing abilities and working memory capacity (Bäckman, Lindenberger, Li, & Nyberg, 2010;Bäckman et al, 2000;Fjell & Walhovd, 2010;Luo & Craik, 2008;Salthouse, 1996).…”

Toward a generalized theory of the shift to retrieval in cognitive skill learning

“…In doing single-digit multiplication, for example, children may initially perform a repeated addition algorithm, but with sufficient practice will transition to direct retrieval (e.g., Siegler, 1988). Multiple laboratory studies have confirmed this shift over a variety of arithmetic and nonarithmetic tasks (Delaney, Reder, Staszewski & Ritter, 1998;Hertzog, Touron & Hines, 2007;Jenkins & Hoyer, 2000;Logan, 1988Logan, , 1992Onyper, Hoyer & Cerella, 2006;Palmeri, 1997;Rawson, 2004;Reder & Ritter, 1992;Rickard, 1997Rickard, , 1999Rickard, , 2004Rickard & Bajic, 2003Rogers, Hertzog & Fisk, 2000;Schunn, Reder, Nhouyvanisvong, Richards & Stroffolino, 1997;Touron, Hoyer & Cerella, 2001). An understanding of the temporal dynamics of strategy execution in these tasks is integral to the broader goal of modeling the underlying learning processes and performance mechanisms, as well as the factors that may modulate the rate of the strategy shift (e.g., Bourne, Raymond & Healy, 2010;Onyper et al, 2006;Salvucci & Taatgen, 2008;Touron & Hertzog, 2009).…”

“…An example laboratory task is noun-pair lookup (Hertzog et al, 2007;Touron et al, 2001). In a typical version of that task, a set of noun pairs is presented at the top of the screen.…”

Preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading for older adults.

“…Despite the small number of problems and the large number of practice trials, reports of retrieval use were still lower for older adults than for younger adults at the end of practice. Other studies have also shown persistent age differences in memory-based automaticity even after extensive practice with the same items (e.g., Hertzog, Touron, & Hines, 2007;Jenkins & Hoyer, 2000;Lamson & Rogers, 2008;Touron, 2006). For example, Touron and Hertzog (2004a) found persistent age differences in retrieval use after 60 item repetitions, even in a condition for which all items were pretrained.…”