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Contents
- Abstract
- WM Capacity and Its Development
- Meta-Memory and Its Development
- The Present Study
- Experiment 1
- Method
- Participants
- Apparatus, Stimuli, and Procedure
- Visual Memory Task
- Auxiliary Tasks
- Data Analysis
- Estimations of Working Memory Capacity (k)
- Inferential Statistical Approaches
- Results
- Average k and Meta-WM
- Effects of the Meta-Judgment Requirement
- Age Differences in WM (k) and Meta-WM
- Development of Meta-WM Accuracy
- The Relationship between Cognitive Ability and Meta-WM Accuracy
- WM Capacity (k) and Meta-WM
- Auxiliary Measures of Cognitive Ability and Meta-WM
- Do Meta-WM Ratings Predict Trial-Level Memory Accuracy?
- Discussion
- Experiment 2
- Method
- Participants
- Apparatus, Stimuli, and Procedure
- Results
- The Effect of Retention Interval
- Central Tendency Responding?
- Age Differences in k and Meta-WM
- Development of Meta-WM Accuracy
- The Relationship between Cognitive Ability and Meta-WM
- Working Memory Capacity (k) and Meta-WM
- Auxiliary Measures of Cognitive Ability and Meta-WM
- Do Meta-WM Ratings Predict Trial-Level Memory Accuracy?
- Discussion
- General Discussion
- Theoretical Implications of the Development of Meta-WM Accuracy
- Limits in a Resource Common to WM and Meta-WM?
- Limits in Knowledge about Memory Processes?
- Inability to Use Some Representations Initially in WM?
- Compliance to Task Demands?
- Potential Mechanisms of Meta-WM Inaccuracy: Summary Remarks
- Why Are Meta-WM Ratings Not More Consistently Tuned to Trial-Level WM?
- Different Meta-WM Paradigms
- Missing Meta-WM Responses
- Possible Effects of Meta-WM on Response Biases and Their Development
- Conclusion
Figures and Tables
Abstract
Growth in working memory capacity, the number of items kept active in mind, is thought to be an important aspect of childhood cognitive development. Here, we focused on participants’ awareness of the contents of their working memory, or meta-working memory, which seems important because people can put cognitive abilities to best use only if they are aware of their limitations. In two experiments on the development of meta-working memory in children between 6 and 13 years old and adults, participants were to remember arrays of colored squares and to indicate if a probe item was in the array. On many trials, before the probe recognition test, they reported a metajudgment, how many items they thought they remembered. We compared meta-working memory judgments to actual...