Remind me of the context: Memory and metacognition at restudy

Abstract

Mastering study materials often requires repeated learning. However, the strategy of restudying the same materials has been criticized for not giving sufficient opportunity for retrieval in the form of self-assessments that are known to benefit not only learning but also metacognitive monitoring of the learning process. Here we focus on the contribution of retrieval processes to repeated learning that does not include explicit self-assessments. By manipulating environmental context in which restudy takes place, we demonstrate that repeated learning in the same environmental context augments both learning and metacognitive monitoring (as tapped into by immediate judgments of learning). These benefits arise because reinstated context facilitates spontaneous retrieval during learning in the form of recollection of previous study opportunities. At the same time, we demonstrate that explicit self-assessments – delayed judgments of learning – can be led astray by non-diagnostic spurious familiarity of environmental context which accompanies these assessments. The study thus reveals the positive effects of environmental context on restudy and metacognitive monitoring of restudy, while highlighting possible inaccuracies of metacognitive processes involved in explicit self-assessments of learning