Skip to main content
Article
Prediction Accuracy of Young and Middle-aged Adults in Memory for Familiar and Unfamiliar Texts
Faculty Journal Articles
  • Sarah K Johnson
  • Andrea R Halpern, Bucknell University
Publication Date
1-1-1999
Description

This study investigated the influence of age, familiarity, and level of exposure on the metamemorial skill of prediction accuracy on a future test. Young (17 to 23 years old) and middle-aged adults (35 to 50 years old) were asked to predict their memory for text material. Participants made predictions on a familiar text and an unfamiliar text, at three different levels of exposure to each. The middle-aged adults were superior to the younger adults at predicting performance. This finding indicates that metamemory may increase from youth to middle age. Other findings include superior prediction accuracy for unfamiliar compared to familiar material, a result conflicting with previous findings, and an interaction between level of exposure and familiarity that appears to modify the main effects of those variables.

Journal
American Journal of Psychology
Department
Psychology
Citation Information
Sarah K Johnson and Andrea R Halpern. "Prediction Accuracy of Young and Middle-aged Adults in Memory for Familiar and Unfamiliar Texts" Vol. 112 Iss. 2 (1999) p. 235 - 241
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrea_halpern/32/