Successive Relearning: The Effect of Metacognitive Ratings and Mediator Usage on Restudy and Retrieval Performance

In this experiment, we will investigate how the inclusion (vs. exclusion) of metacognitive ratings during either restudy or retrieval practice impacts recall accuracy of Swahili-English word pairs on a final test. Additionally, we will investigate if differences in final test accuracy between conditions can be explained by the nature and number of learning strategies used in the restudy and retrieval conditions. Participants will study 40 Swahili-English word pair translations during an initial study phase. They will then restudy some intact pairs on some practice trials or practice retrieving the English words to Swahili cues for other practice trials. The full set of 40 pairs will either be restudied or retrieved twice (two passes) in each of three spaced learning practice sessions (LPSs). Following practice, participants will complete a final cued-recall test. All 5 sessions (initial study, 3 LPSs, final test) will be separated by two days. The experiment has a 2 (metacognitive rating: yes, no) x 2 (practice type: restudy, retrieval) mixed design, with only the first factor varied between subjects. Specifically, half the participants will be asked to provide a metacognitive rating after each practice trial (retrieval: “Was your answer correct?”; restudy: “Would you have remembered the correct translation?”), whereas the other half will not. To investigate how accuracy improves over the LPSs, we gradually start testing items after the first LPSs that were originally restudied. Thus, in the first, second, and third LPS, 10, 20, and 30 items will be retrieved (retrieval practice), respectively, whereas 30, 20, and 10 pairs will be restudied, respectively. This means that for each of the second and third LPS as well as the final test, 10 items would be available with a practice history of either pure restudy or pure retrieval practice. To investigate if participants change their learning strategy depending on the requirement to make metacognitive ratings, participants will be asked after the final test to report the strategy they used to learn each word pair during the LPSs. Strategies have been selected from six multiple choice options (Image, word, sentence generation, repetition, none and other).