Embodiment Meets Metamemory: Weight as a Cue for Metacognitive Judgments

Bodily Effort Enhances Learning and Metacognition: Investigating the Relation Between Physical Effort and Cognition Using Dual-Process Models of Embodiment

“…Previous research has shown that bodily perception is able to influence cognitive processes in a multitude of ways (Barsalou, 1999, 2008; Glenberg, 2010). As an example, the bodily perception of weight cues has been found to increase judgments regarding the importance of information on paper sheets affixed to heavy clipboards (Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010) as well as regarding the importance of the contents of heavy books (Chandler, Reinhard, & Schwartz, 2012). As Jostmann, Lakens, and Schubert (2009) argue, the physical effort that is required for carrying heavier objects may act as a bodily trigger to put more cognitive effort into a task.…”

“…Recent advances have been made in extending embodied cognition research (Barsalou, 1999, 2008) to more elaborate cognitive processes, such as problem-solving (e.g., Kaspar & Vennekötter, 2015), as well as learning and metacognition (e.g., Alban & Kelley, 2013). Kaspar and Vennekötter (2015) showed that the concurrent perception of weight can decrease performance in an anagram task, whereas studies by Alban and Kelley (2013) demonstrated that, if participants learn words printed on heavy boxes, their confidence in being able to recall these words increases in comparison with participants learning words printed on light boxes.…”

Knowing your heart and your mind: The relationships between metamemory and interoception

“…Indeed, there is some evidence that metamemory may be embodied in this way. For example, in one study used physical weight as an embodied cue for importance, and showed that stimuli with greater weights were given higher metacognitive ratings (Alban & Kelley, 2013). Another embodied metacognition study showed a similar effect -contracting one’s eyebrows embodied a feeling of effort and led to lower subjective ratings (Koriat & Nussinson, 2009), again showing that the bodily state can impact metacognitive judgments.…”

The influence of perceptual information on control processes involved in self-regulated learning: evidence from item selection

“…Perceptual information is increasingly recognized as being involved in high level cognition, including memory, concept processing, language comprehension (e.g., Kleider & Goldinger, 2004;Wu & Barsalou, 2009; see also Barsalou, 2010, for a review), and even in metacognition (e.g., Alban & Kelley, 2013;Foster & Sahakyan, 2012;Rhodes & Castel, 2008, 2009). The present research focuses on one of these high level skills-metacognition, in which individuals monitor and control their own cognition (e.g., Nelson & Narens, 1994), and hence, play a key role in self-regulated learning (Metcalfe, 2009).…”

“…The present research focuses on one of these high level skills-metacognition, in which individuals monitor and control their own cognition (e.g., Nelson & Narens, 1994), and hence, play a key role in self-regulated learning (Metcalfe, 2009). Although previous studies (e.g., Alban & Kelley, 2013;Foster & Sahkayan, 2012;Rhodes & Castel, 2008) have provided evidence of influence of perceptual properties on monitoring of learning, little is known about the influence of perceptual properties on control of learning. Investigation of perceptual information on control process can contribute to our understanding of how people regulate their own learning and could potentially provide strong evidence supporting the idea that perceptual information plays a key role in higher cognition.…”