One of the current areas of research into memory accuracy improvement focuses on the concept of reactivity or changes to behavior that occur outside of the manipulated independent variables which may be attributable to biases or expectations of participants (Adair, 1984; Saretsky, 1972). Although reactivity is often interpreted as a threat to internal validity, research using metacognitive judgments has demonstrated that asking individuals to predict future performance at study can promote memory on subsequent tests of cue-target word pairs. An important question is whether these positive reactivity effects are specific to metacognitive judgments provided at encoding, or whether positive reactivity effects operate more generally and manifest when judgments are provided at test. One such judgment type, confidence ratings (CRs), ask individuals to estimate the likelihood that a retrieved item is correct. In a pilot dataset, providing CRs produced positive reactivity effects versus a no-CR control. The current experiment then tested whether CR reactivity effects reflect enhanced monitoring by evaluating CR reactivity patterns under conditions of full or divided attention. Compared to full attention, divided attention was expected to reduce test-based memory monitoring, thereby reducing or eliminating reactivity patterns relative to a no-CR control group. However, results showed no significant reactivity effects, either positive or negative, between groups.
","abstract_html":"<p>One of the current areas of research into memory accuracy improvement focuses on the concept of <em>reactivity</em> or changes to behavior that occur outside of the manipulated independent variables which may be attributable to biases or expectations of participants (Adair, 1984; Saretsky, 1972). Although reactivity is often interpreted as a threat to internal validity, research using metacognitive judgments has demonstrated that asking individuals to predict future performance at study can promote memory on subsequent tests of cue-target word pairs. An important question is whether these positive reactivity effects are specific to metacognitive judgments provided at encoding, or whether positive reactivity effects operate more generally and manifest when judgments are provided at test. One such judgment type, confidence ratings (CRs), ask individuals to estimate the likelihood that a retrieved item is correct. In a pilot dataset, providing CRs produced positive reactivity effects versus a no-CR control. The current experiment then tested whether CR reactivity effects reflect enhanced monitoring by evaluating CR reactivity patterns under conditions of full or divided attention. Compared to full attention, divided attention was expected to reduce test-based memory monitoring, thereby reducing or eliminating reactivity patterns relative to a no-CR control group. However, results showed no significant reactivity effects, either positive or negative, between groups.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Morehead, Amelia G"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Mark Huff","Lin Agler","Andrew Huebert"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:47Z","subjects":["metacognition","memory","cued-recall","distraction","confidence","Cognition and Perception","Cognitive Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1123","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Mark Huff","Lin Agler","Andrew Huebert"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Morehead, Amelia G"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2027-06-10T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["metacognition","memory","cued-recall","distraction","confidence","Cognition and Perception","Cognitive Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1123"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["One of the current areas of research into memory accuracy improvement focuses on the concept of reactivity or changes to behavior that occur outside of the manipulated independent variables which may be attributable to biases or expectations of participants (Adair, 1984; Saretsky, 1972). Although reactivity is often interpreted as a threat to internal validity, research using metacognitive judgments has demonstrated that asking individuals to predict future performance at study can promote memory on subsequent tests of cue-target word pairs. An important question is whether these positive reactivity effects are specific to metacognitive judgments provided at encoding, or whether positive reactivity effects operate more generally and manifest when judgments are provided at test. One such judgment type, confidence ratings (CRs), ask individuals to estimate the likelihood that a retrieved item is correct. In a pilot dataset, providing CRs produced positive reactivity effects versus a no-CR control. The current experiment then tested whether CR reactivity effects reflect enhanced monitoring by evaluating CR reactivity patterns under conditions of full or divided attention. Compared to full attention, divided attention was expected to reduce test-based memory monitoring, thereby reducing or eliminating reactivity patterns relative to a no-CR control group. However, results showed no significant reactivity effects, either positive or negative, between groups.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Effects of Distraction on Confidence Rating Reactivity During Cued-Recall"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Mark Huff","Lin Agler","Andrew Huebert"],"dc:creator":["Morehead, Amelia G"],"dc:date.available":["2027-06-10T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["One of the current areas of research into memory accuracy improvement focuses on the concept of reactivity or changes to behavior that occur outside of the manipulated independent variables which may be attributable to biases or expectations of participants (Adair, 1984; Saretsky, 1972). Although reactivity is often interpreted as a threat to internal validity, research using metacognitive judgments has demonstrated that asking individuals to predict future performance at study can promote memory on subsequent tests of cue-target word pairs. An important question is whether these positive reactivity effects are specific to metacognitive judgments provided at encoding, or whether positive reactivity effects operate more generally and manifest when judgments are provided at test. One such judgment type, confidence ratings (CRs), ask individuals to estimate the likelihood that a retrieved item is correct. In a pilot dataset, providing CRs produced positive reactivity effects versus a no-CR control. The current experiment then tested whether CR reactivity effects reflect enhanced monitoring by evaluating CR reactivity patterns under conditions of full or divided attention. Compared to full attention, divided attention was expected to reduce test-based memory monitoring, thereby reducing or eliminating reactivity patterns relative to a no-CR control group. However, results showed no significant reactivity effects, either positive or negative, between groups.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1123"],"dc:subject":["metacognition","memory","cued-recall","distraction","confidence","Cognition and Perception","Cognitive Psychology"],"dc:title":["The Effects of Distraction on Confidence Rating Reactivity During Cued-Recall"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:47Z"}