Self-paced study and word dimensionality in metacognition

Abstract

The mechanisms underlying metacognitive monitoring-control relationships for emotional information are unclear in the existent literature. We conducted two online studies of university students measuring metacognition for emotional words across three related dependent variables: study time, judgements of learning (JOLs) and recall. We used a repeated measures design with free-recall testing for both experiments. In Experiment 1, words were distinctly categorized based on emotional valence (negative, neutral, and positive). In Experiment 2, words were categorized based on arousal (low, medium, and high). In the first experiment we found that both negative- and positive-valenced words were higher than neutral-valenced words in both JOL rating and recall. In the second experiment we did not find an effect of arousal on JOL ratings or recall. These data suggest that valence and arousal have conceptually distinct roles in metacognition within the mixed-list, three-level design we used. In the second experiment only, we also found that study time was reduced between blocks. Participants were surveyed on their explicit metacognitive beliefs underlying their study habits. Participants tended to explicitly notice the valence manipulation but did not notice the arousal manipulation. Participants also tended to qualify emotional words as being more relatable to themselves, perhaps hinting at how our memory systems engage with emotional information. Further qualifications about how individuals’ metacognitive strategies vary based on word quality are discussed.