The Metamemory-Memory “Connection”: Effects of Strategy Training and Maintenance

Abstract

This study addressed the relationship between task-specific indices of metamemory and subsequent strategic behaviors as shown during the training and maintenance of a cumulative-cluster strategy. Trained and noninstructed groups of both male and female (N = 50) third graders participated in three sessions (two acquisition and one maintenance), intervening between metamemory sessions; a third group participated only in two metamemory sessions. Half of the instructed children received feedback concerning the value of the cumulative-cluster strategy on recall at the conclusion of the maintenance session. Pretest metamemory scores were related to strategy form and to recall at maintenance. Posttest metamemory scores correlated with recall during training and strategy form at maintenance. Children who received strategy training plus feedback showed the largest shift in metamemory scores; those who demonstrated maintenance displayed an awareness of strategy generalization at the posttest metamemory session, three weeks after maintenance.