DOES THE SENSITIVITY OF JUDGMENTS OF LEARNING (JOLS) TO THE EFFECTS OF VARIOUS STUDY ACTIVITIES DEPEND ON WHEN THE JOLS OCCUR

Judgments of learning (JOLs) made immediately after items are studied have been shown to be insensitive to the way in which eventual memory performance is affected by (a) imagery versus rote rehearsal and (b) distributed versus massed repetitions. One explanation is that JOLs made immediately after study assess transient information that affects JOLs but is not predictive of eventual memory performance. Accordingly, we hypothesized that if the JOLs are delayed until the transient information about the to-be-judged item has dissipated, they might more accurately assess the effects of the study activities on subsequent retention. Our two experiments confirmed that hypothesis. The magnitude of delayed JOLs was greater after interactive imagery than after rote rehearsal (Experiment 1) and was greater after distributed repetitions than after massed repetitions (Experiment 2). Also, the distributions of JOLs indicated greater confidence (polarization) for delayed JOLs than for immediate JOLs, and the accuracy of predicting item-by-item retention was greater for delayed JOLs than for immediate JOLs in every condition (rote rehearsal, interactive imagery, single presentations, massed repetitions, and distributed repetitions). Thus people's timing of their JOLs is critical for several aspects of metacognition. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.