metamemory

Metamemory refers to a person’s knowledge, awareness, and regulation of their own memory processes. As a subset of metacognition, it encompasses what one thinks about memory capabilities and limitations, what strategies are used to facilitate remembering, and how one monitors and controls study and retrieval processes. Metamemory interacts with both encoding and retrieval by shaping how information is learned and later tested.

Metamemory comprises monitoring and control. Monitoring involves judgments about memory states, such as judgments of learning (JOLs), feeling-of-knowing (FOK), and retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs). Control involves decisions based on these judgments, including how long to study an item, which strategies to deploy, and when to stop studying. The accuracy of metamemory is described in terms of calibration and resolution relative to actual memory performance.

One prominent framework is the Nelson and Narens model, which posits two interacting levels: a cognitive object level and a meta level used to monitor and regulate the object level. Koriat’s cue-utilization framework explains how retrieval cues influence JOLs. Common experimental measures include JOLs, FOK, RCJs, and calibration curves that compare predicted recall to actual recall.

Metamemory can improve through practice, feedback, and strategies that promote accurate monitoring, such as iterative testing, delayed feedback, and calibration training. Age and experience influence metamemory accuracy, with older adults often showing reduced resolution in some tasks. In education and clinical settings, understanding metamemory helps tailor study strategies, enhance self-regulated learning, and address memory concerns in aging and memory disorders.