Metamemory: Effects of Age and Imaging Control Capacity

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the possible influences of age and imaging control capacity on word recognition accuracy (i.e., accuracy of identification of words presented previously), and level of confidence in the correctness of answers. A total of 129 subjects aged 20-40 years (n = 49), 41-60 years (n = 40), or over 60 years (n = 40), all with university-level education, took part in the study. Subjects were additionally classified as strong or weak imagers on the basis of the Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control. All subjects were presented with a list of 40 words, and subsequently with a recognition test list of 80 words (the 40 original words, plus another 40 words); subjects were asked to decide which of the 80 words had been presented previously, and to rate their confidence in each judgment on a 1-4 scale. We obtained significant differences of age on discrimination (A') or P(A), and of imaging control capacity on discrimination (A').Vividness of imagery has been associated with cognitive performance in many experimental studies (e.g., [1-3]), above all with memory (for review, see [4][5][6][7]). However, little is known about the effects of subjects' imaging capacity on metamemory. Mecklenbräuker [8] did not find any relationship between subjects' understanding of mental image concepts and their memory performance. Denis 179 Ó 2007, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.