Memory and Technology

Finley, Jason R.; Naaz, Farah; Goh, Francine W

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-99169-6

Cited by 58 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…Similarly, in another study involving the recall of word pairs, lower confidence in memory ability was linked to more frequent requests for hints, even when performance was controlled for [ 12 ]. In line with this, a survey study showed a negative correlation between self-reported internal memory ability and the use of memory offloading [ 13 ]. These results suggest that decisions of whether to set reminders are influenced by potentially erroneous metacognitive evaluations of internal memory abilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

The effect of metacognitive training on confidence and strategic reminder setting

Engeler

Gilbert²

2020

PLoS ONE

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Individuals often choose between remembering information using their own memory ability versus using external resources to reduce cognitive demand (i.e. ‘cognitive offloading’). For example, to remember a future appointment an individual could choose to set a smartphone reminder or depend on their unaided memory ability. Previous studies investigating strategic reminder setting found that participants set more reminders than would be optimal, and this bias towards reminder-setting was predicted by metacognitive underconfidence in unaided memory ability. Due to the link between underconfidence in memory ability and excessive reminder setting, the aim of the current study was to investigate whether metacognitive training is an effective intervention to a) improve metacognitive judgment accuracy, and b) reduce bias in strategic offloading behaviour. Participants either received metacognitive training which involved making performance predictions and receiving feedback on judgment accuracy, or were part of a control group. As predicted, metacognitive training increased judgment accuracy: participants in the control group were significantly underconfident in their memory ability, whereas the experimental group showed no significant metacognitive bias. However, contrary to predictions, both experimental and control groups were significantly biased toward reminder-setting, and did not differ significantly. Therefore, reducing metacognitive bias was not sufficient to eliminate the bias towards reminders. We suggest that the reminder bias likely results in part from erroneous metacognitive evaluations, but that other factors such as a preference to avoid cognitive effort may also be relevant. Finding interventions to mitigate these factors could improve the adaptive use of external resources.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

The effect of metacognitive training on confidence and strategic reminder setting

Engeler

Gilbert²

2020

PLoS ONE

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“…As working memory capacity is constrained ( Cowan, 2010 ), it is common for humans to offload relevant information onto the external environment for prospective tasks ( Gilbert, 2015 ). This is an example of “cognitive offloading” ( Finley et al, 2018 ; Risko & Gilbert, 2016 ). For example, during a lecture, you may note down questions to ask at the end, or you may create an entry in your calendar to remember your friend’s birthday.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trait anxiety does not correlate with metacognitive confidence or reminder usage in a delayed intentions task

Kirk

Robinson

Gilbert

2020

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Setting external reminders provides a convenient way to reduce cognitive demand and ensure accurate retrieval of information for prospective tasks. Recent experimental evidence has demonstrated that the decision to offload cognitive information to external resources is guided by metacognitive belief, i.e. individuals’ confidence in their unaided ability. Other work has also suggested a relationship between metacognitive belief and trait anxiety. In the present study (N=300), we bridged these two areas by investigating whether trait anxiety correlated with metacognitive belief — and consequently — propensity to offload information in a delayed intentions paradigm. Participants received a financial reward based on their ability to remember targets. However, participants could take a reduced reward per target if they decided to use reminders. We replicated previous findings that participants were biased to use more reminders than would be optimal, and this bias was correlated with metacognitive judgements. However, we show no evidence that trait anxiety held a relationship with metacognitive belief or reminder usage. Indeed, Bayesian analyses strongly favoured the null. Therefore, variation in self-reported trait anxiety does not necessarily influence confidence and strategy when participants remember delayed intentions.

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“…Recent research has begun to investigate how and when people decide to use cognitive offloading as a strategy to support their prospective memory (Cherkaoui & Gilbert, 2017; Gilbert, 2015a, 2015b; Gilbert et al, in press; Redshaw, Vandersee, Bulley, & Gilbert, 2018). Similarly, cognitive offloading has been studied in the context of problem solving (Chu & Kita, 2011), learning (Costa et al, 2011), mental rotation (Dunn & Risko, 2016), and retrospective memory (Finley, Naaz, & Goh, 2018; Henkel, 2014; Risko & Dunn, 2015; Soares & Storm, 2018; Storm & Stone, 2015). One goal of this research is to understand the mechanisms by which individuals decide whether or not to engage in cognitive offloading.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confidence guides spontaneous cognitive offloading

Boldt

Gilbert

2019

Cogn. Research

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BackgroundCognitive offloading is the use of physical action to reduce the cognitive demands of a task. Everyday memory relies heavily on this practice; for example, when we write down to-be-remembered information or use diaries, alerts, and reminders to trigger delayed intentions. A key goal of recent research has been to investigate the processes that trigger cognitive offloading. This research has demonstrated that individuals decide whether or not to offload based on a potentially erroneous metacognitive evaluation of their mental abilities. Therefore, improving the accuracy of metacognitive evaluations may help to optimise offloading behaviour. However, previous studies typically measure participants’ use of an explicitly instructed offloading strategy, in contrast to everyday life where offloading strategies must often be generated spontaneously.ResultsWe administered a computer-based task requiring participants to remember delayed intentions. One group of participants was explicitly instructed on a method for setting external reminders; another was not. The latter group spontaneously set reminders but did so less often than the instructed group. Offloading improved performance in both groups. Crucially, metacognition (confidence in unaided memory ability) guided both instructed and spontaneous offloading: Participants in both groups set more reminders when they were less confident (regardless of actual memory ability).ConclusionsThese results show that the link between metacognition and cognitive offloading holds even when offloading strategies need to be spontaneously generated. Thus, metacognitive interventions are potentially able to alter offloading behaviour, without requiring offloading strategies to be explicitly instructed.

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Memory and Technology

Cited by 58 publications

References 0 publications

The effect of metacognitive training on confidence and strategic reminder setting

The effect of metacognitive training on confidence and strategic reminder setting

Trait anxiety does not correlate with metacognitive confidence or reminder usage in a delayed intentions task

Confidence guides spontaneous cognitive offloading

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