New information that is compatible with pre-existing knowledge can be learned faster. Such schema memory effect has been reported in declarative memory and in explicit motor sequence learning (MSL). Here, we investigated if sequences of key presses that were compatible to previously trained ones, could be learned faster in an implicit MSL task.…

Being able to notice that a cause-effect relation is getting stronger or weaker is important for adapting to one's environment and deciding how to use the cause in the future. We conducted an experiment in which participants learned about a cause-effect relation that either got stronger or weaker over time. The experiment was conducted with a…

When people remember together, what one person says can affect what others report. The size of this effect is dependent on the characteristics of the people and how they express their beliefs. The power relationship among people affects much of their social cognition, including the size of this "memory conformity" effect. Some research…

Recent evidence has shown that eliciting confidence ratings can affect cognitive performance--a so-called reactivity effect. Several mechanisms have been proposed to account for reactivity, but currently there is only indirect evidence about why confidence ratings are reactive. Here, we explore the strategic changes in cognitive processes that…

Successful recognition is generally thought to be based on both recollection and familiarity of studied information. Recent studies found that making judgments of learning (JOLs) can reactively facilitate recognition performance, a form of reactivity effect on memory. The current study aimed to explore the roles of recollection and familiarity in…

Retrospective confidence refers to the phenomenological experience of the level of certainty that retrieved information is, in fact, correct. Retrospective confidence judgments are examined across a range of sub-disciplines in psychology from perception to memory research, and in education and legal applications. This paper focuses on…

Perception and perceptual memory play crucial roles in fear generalization, yet their dynamic interaction remains understudied. This research (N = 80) explored their relationship through a classical differential conditioning experiment. Results revealed that while fear context perception fluctuates over time with a drift effect, perceptual memory…

Two experiments explored the search for pairs of faces in a disjunctive dual-target face search (DDTFS) task for unfamiliar face targets. The distinctiveness of the target was manipulated such that both faces were typical or distinctive or contained one typical and one distinctive target. Targets were searched for in arrays of eight faces. In…

Prediction error plays a pivotal role in theories of learning, including theories of language acquisition and use. Researchers have investigated whether and under which conditions children, like adults, use prediction to facilitate language comprehension at different levels of linguistic representation. However, many aspects of the reciprocal…

The personalization of curriculum plays a pivotal role in supporting students in achieving their unique learning goals. In recent years, researchers have dedicated efforts to address the challenge of personalizing curriculum through diverse techniques and approaches. However, it is crucial to acknowledge the phenomenon of student forgetting, as…

The author has been influenced throughout his time in mathematics education by the work of Caleb Gattegno. Gattegno made extensive use of the word awareness whereas much educational literature from a psychological perspective talks about memory (for example, Justicia-Galiano, MartÌn-Puga, Linares & Pelegrina, 2017). This has, amongst other…

Self-derivation through integration is the process of integrating novel facts and producing new knowledge never directly taught. Knowledge integration has been studied with the presentation of two novel facts. However, in educational settings, individuals are required to integrate new information with prior knowledge learned days, months, or years…

Our school career culminates in a set of exam results, but if students want to do well, attending lessons is not enough: the implicit expectation is that all students will reinforce learning independently outside of the classroom. Really effective learners employ effective independent study techniques, but when, how and where do they learn to do…

In a range of settings, human operators make decisions with the assistance of automation, the reliability of which can vary depending upon context. Currently, the processes by which humans track the level of reliability of automation are unclear. In the current study, we test cognitive models of learning that could potentially explain how humans…

It is commonly accepted that repeatedly using mental procedures results in a transition to memory retrieval, but the determinant of this process is still unclear. In a 3-week experiment, we compared two different learning situations involving basic additions, one based on counting and the other based on arithmetic fact memorization. Two groups of…