Cargando…

Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults

The positivity effect for metacognitive judgments (judgments of learning, JOLs) of emotional words in recognition memory was shown in older adults, in contrast to younger adults, who typically displayed the emotional salience effect. This is compatible with the socioemotional selection theory, which...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sun, Xiaojun, Jiang, Yingjie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10052143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36976133
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030040
_version_ 1785015089373380608
author Sun, Xiaojun
Jiang, Yingjie
author_facet Sun, Xiaojun
Jiang, Yingjie
author_sort Sun, Xiaojun
collection PubMed
description The positivity effect for metacognitive judgments (judgments of learning, JOLs) of emotional words in recognition memory was shown in older adults, in contrast to younger adults, who typically displayed the emotional salience effect. This is compatible with the socioemotional selection theory, which suggests the presence of a positive stimulus bias in older adults’ cognitive processes. This study examined whether the positivity effect and age-related differences could be extended to a picture study to determine whether the positivity effect in older adults is robust in the metacognitive domain. Younger and older adults studied negative, positive, and neutral pictures, followed by JOLs and then a recognition test that asked participants to judge whether the picture was shown in the studying stage or not. Age-related differences were found not only in recognition memory performance for emotional pictures but also in JOLs and their accuracy. Younger adults showed an emotional salience effect for both memory performance and JOLs. Older adults’ JOLs showed a positivity effect, but their actual memory performance was influenced by emotion, and this inconsistency between metacognitive judgments and memory performance is a metacognitive illusion. These findings support the cross-material replicability of a positivity bias in older adults in the metacognitive domain and suggest that we should be cautioned about the detrimental effects of this metacognitive illusion in older adults. It illustrates an age difference in the effect of emotion on individual metacognitive monitoring ability.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10052143
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100521432023-03-30 Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults Sun, Xiaojun Jiang, Yingjie J Intell Article The positivity effect for metacognitive judgments (judgments of learning, JOLs) of emotional words in recognition memory was shown in older adults, in contrast to younger adults, who typically displayed the emotional salience effect. This is compatible with the socioemotional selection theory, which suggests the presence of a positive stimulus bias in older adults’ cognitive processes. This study examined whether the positivity effect and age-related differences could be extended to a picture study to determine whether the positivity effect in older adults is robust in the metacognitive domain. Younger and older adults studied negative, positive, and neutral pictures, followed by JOLs and then a recognition test that asked participants to judge whether the picture was shown in the studying stage or not. Age-related differences were found not only in recognition memory performance for emotional pictures but also in JOLs and their accuracy. Younger adults showed an emotional salience effect for both memory performance and JOLs. Older adults’ JOLs showed a positivity effect, but their actual memory performance was influenced by emotion, and this inconsistency between metacognitive judgments and memory performance is a metacognitive illusion. These findings support the cross-material replicability of a positivity bias in older adults in the metacognitive domain and suggest that we should be cautioned about the detrimental effects of this metacognitive illusion in older adults. It illustrates an age difference in the effect of emotion on individual metacognitive monitoring ability. MDPI 2023-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10052143/ /pubmed/36976133 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030040 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sun, Xiaojun
Jiang, Yingjie
Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults
title Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults
title_full Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults
title_fullStr Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults
title_full_unstemmed Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults
title_short Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults
title_sort metacognitive illusions: a positivity effect in judgments of learning for older but not younger adults
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10052143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36976133
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030040
work_keys_str_mv AT sunxiaojun metacognitiveillusionsapositivityeffectinjudgmentsoflearningforolderbutnotyoungeradults
AT jiangyingjie metacognitiveillusionsapositivityeffectinjudgmentsoflearningforolderbutnotyoungeradults