Research report: In a year, memory will benefit from learning, tomorrow it won't: Distance and construal level effects on the basis of metamemory judgments

Vered Halamish, Ravit Nussinson, Liat Ben-Ari

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Metamemory judgments may rely on 2 bases of information: subjective experience and abstract theories about memory. On the basis of construal level theory, we predicted that psychological distance and construal level (i.e., concrete vs. abstract thinking) would have a qualitative impact on the relative reliance on these 2 bases: When considering learning from proximity or under a low-construal mindset, learners would rely more heavily on their experience, whereas when considering learning from a distance or under a high-construal mindset, they would rely more heavily on their abstract theories. Consistent with this prediction, results of 2 experiments revealed that temporal distance (Experiment 1) and construal level (Experiment 2) affected the stability bias-the failure to predict the benefits of learning. When considering learning from proximity or using a low-construal mindset, participants relied less heavily on their theory regarding the benefits of learning and were therefore insensitive to future learning. However, when considering learning from temporal distance or using a high-construal mindset, participants relied more heavily on their theory and were therefore better able to predict the benefits of future learning, thus overcoming the stability bias.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)1621-1627
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition
Volume39
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2013

Keywords

  • Construal level theory
  • Ease of processing
  • Metacognition
  • Metamemory
  • Stability bias

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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