Exploring Age-Related Metamemory Differences Using Modified Brier Scores and Hierarchical Clustering

<p>Older adults (OAs) typically experience memory failures as they age. However, with some exceptions, studies of OAs’ ability to assess their own memory functions– Metamemory (MM)– find little evidence that this function is susceptible to age-related decline. Our study examines OAs’ and young adults’ (YAs) MM performance and strategy use. Groups of YAs (N = 138) and OAs (N = 79) performed a MM task that required participants to place bets on how likely they were to remember words in a list. Our analytical approach includes hierarchical clustering, and we introduce a new measure of MM—the modified Brier—in order to adjust for di↵erences in scale usage between participants. Our data indicate that OAs and YAs di↵er in the strategies they use to assess their memory and in how well their MM matches with memory performance. However, there was no evidence that the chosen strategies were associated with di↵erences in MM match, indicating that there are multiple strategies that might be e↵ective (i.e. lead to similar match) in this MM task.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computational and Data Sciences

Year

2019

Author dc:creator

• Parlett, Chelsea

Contributors dc:contributor

• Erik Linstead
• Rene German
• Elizabeth Stevens

• Metamemory
• Aging
• Clustering
• Cognitive Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cads_theses/3

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:cads_theses-1002