Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Thursday Evening Posters 1064–1070
(3–7 dots) that shifted across sessions, errors occurred most often for
sets adjacent in numerosity to the center value. The monkeys also used
the uncertainty response most frequently on these difficult trials. A
second experiment showed that the animals’ numerosity judgments
and uncertainty responses reflected numerical magnitude and not the
surface-area illumination of the displays. This research shows for the
first time that animals’ uncertainty-monitoring capacity extends to
the domain of numerical cognition. It also shows animals’ use of the
purest uncertainty response possible, uncontaminated by any secondary
motivator.
(1064)
Does Multimedia Improve Metacomprehension Accuracy for Text
Content? MICHAEL J. SERRA & JOHN DUNLOSKY, Kent State
University—Prior research has established the learning advantage that
multimedia materials (e.g., text with diagrams) produce over singlemedia
materials (e.g., text alone). However, whether multimedia formats
also support better metacomprehension is currently unknown.
The present research was undertaken to establish more firmly the patterns
of judgment accuracy associated with these two types of material.
Participants studied science texts composed of either text paragraphs
with corresponding diagrams or text paragraphs alone. Per-paragraph
judgments of learning (JOLs) made for multimedia materials were more
accurate than those made for text alone, but global JOLs predicted the
test performance of the two study groups equally well. Potential explanations
for these results and their implications for theories of learning,
multimedia learning, and metacomprehension are discussed.
(1065)
Why Delayed Summarization Improves Metacomprehension Accuracy.
KEITH W. THIEDE, University of Illinois, Chicago, & MARY
ANDERSON, College of DuPage—Metacomprehension accuracy influences
the effectiveness of regulation of study and overall reading
comprehension (Thiede, Anderson, & Therriault, 2003). One way to
improve metacomprehension accuracy is to have readers write summaries
of texts prior to judging their comprehension of the texts; however,
accuracy only improves when summaries are written after a
delay, not when written immediately after reading (Thiede & Anderson,
2003). We will present the results of an experiment that suggest
accuracy differs because readers focus on different aspects of the texts
when summaries are written after a delay versus immediately after
reading. The results will be discussed within a cue utilization framework
of metacognitive monitoring (Koriat, 1997).
(1066)
Methods for Promoting and Assessing Readers’ Metacomprehension
Monitoring. THOMAS D. GRIFFIN, JENNIFER WILEY, & KEITH W.
THIEDE, University of Illinois, Chicago—Accurate performance prediction,
the typical measure of metacomprehension, can be affected
by use of both internal and external cues. However, metacomprehension
is conceptually defined as monitoring internal cues about one’s
own representations. Thus, prediction of relative test performance is
an indirect and potentially unreliable indicator of metacomprehension.
Although previously unused, a simple statistical method can create
accuracy scores that are unaffected by use of external, nonmetacognitive
cues. This approach allows for more valid inferences
about whether differences in prediction accuracy actually reflect differences
in monitoring mental representations. This approach was
used to compare two intervention groups that showed higher typical
prediction accuracy than did controls. When variance due to the use
of nonmetacognitive cues was eliminated, only one group still showed
superior accuracy. The difference between the groups was predicted
on the basis of whether the interventions increased attention to internal
comprehension cues or external text features.
(1067)
Metacognitive Sophistication About Desirable Difficulty: Implications
for Acquisition of Complex Materials. MATT HAYS, UCLA,
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LINDSEY E. RICHLAND, University of California, Irvine, & ROBERT
A. BJORK, UCLA—Certain conditions of practice introduce difficulties
for the learner during acquisition but, unintuitively, can enhance longterm
retention and transfer. Such “desirable difficulties” (Bjork,
1994, 1999) include interleaving rather than blocking practice on separate
topics and testing rather than reading as the learning event. This
study examines the relationship between learners’ metacognitive
awareness of interleaving and test effects and their acquisition of educational
materials. A metacognitive questionnaire revealed that only
12% of 71 undergraduates understood the advantages of interleaving,
and only 7% of them used it during study. Understanding was higher
for test effects, for 32% of learners predicted that rereading material
would be more useful than test events, and 67% preferred testing. Importantly,
learners’ metacognitive sophistication was correlated with
their retention after 1 week [r(71) = .26, p < .05], indicating that learners
who understand desirable difficulties may be better able to disentangle
performance during acquisition from retention over time.
(1068)
Raising the Bar for Computer-Based Research Methods. RICHARD
R. PLANT & ANNIE L. TRAPP, University of York, & NICK V. HAM-
MOND, Higher Education Academy (sponsored by Jonathan Vaughan)—
There have been many previous attempts to construct freely available
libraries of experiment generator scripts for reuse within the wider
academic community. Often these have relied on philanthropic gestures
from active researchers willing to donate their own paradigms.
Unfortunately, this utopian dream has not been fulfilled, because of
the closely guarded nature of the research community. Within the
teaching community, however, there remains the need for such script
libraries for educational and training purposes. Moreover, teachers
want access to scripts that can operate across platforms and packages
so that a range of options can be evaluated. In this poster, we outline
a new approach, in which a library is being constructed with gaps
filled by commissioning scripts. The new Web-based library should
also allow researchers to evaluate the learning and teaching impact of
use and how computer-based research methods are taught at degree
level. A unique feature will be its best-practices sections.
• SELECTIVE ATTENTION •
(1069)
The Effect of Conscious and Unconscious Presentation Duration in
a Global–Local Task on Facilitation and Interference. ALLISON
ANDRES, University of Western Ontario, & MYRA A. FERNANDES,
University of Waterloo—Past research has demonstrated a global advantage
in the perception of visually presented hierarchical stimuli
such that on incongruent trials, the global form interferes with responses
to the local level (Kimchi, 1992). In the present study, 24
adults performed alternating blocks of global or local identification
of hierarchical letter stimuli in which the global and local letters were
congruent, incongruent, or neutral. Stimuli were presented randomly
at either an unconscious (17 msec) or conscious (100 msec) exposure
duration. A global advantage was demonstrated at both durations. Facilitation
in identifying the local letter, defined as a decrease in errors
and reaction times on congruent in comparison with neutral trials, was
found only at the conscious exposure duration. Interference, an increase
in errors and reaction time on incongruent in comparison with
neutral trials, was found at both exposure durations. Results suggest
that facilitation requires conscious perception, whereas interference
does not. The role of attention in mediating these processes is discussed.
(1070)
Action Affordances Promote Recovery From Extinction. JANE
RIDDOCH & GLYN W. HUMPHREYS, University of Birmingham
(sponsored by Glyn W. Humphreys)—Three factors on recovery from
extinction in patients with posterior parietal lesions were assessed:
(1) whether objects were frequently used together in action versus
whether they could be used in action together; (2) whether there were