Judgments of Learning Reactively Improve Memory by Enhancing Learning Engagement and Inducing Elaborative Processing: Evidence from an EEG Study

Baike Li; Bernhard Pastötter; Yongen Zhong; Ningxin Su; Ting Huang; Wenbo Zhao; Xiao Hu; Liang Luo; Chunliang Yang

doi:10.3390/jintelligence12040044

Judgments of Learning Reactively Improve Memory by Enhancing Learning Engagement and Inducing Elaborative Processing: Evidence from an EEG Study

J Intell. 2024 Apr 9;12(4):44. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence12040044.

Authors

Baike Li^{1

2}, Bernhard Pastötter³, Yongen Zhong², Ningxin Su⁴, Ting Huang⁵, Wenbo Zhao⁶, Xiao Hu⁷, Liang Luo², Chunliang Yang^{2

7}

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
² Institute of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
³ Department of Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Trier University, D-54296 Trier, Germany.
⁴ Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment for Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
⁵ School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
⁶ School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
⁷ Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.

Abstract

Making judgments of learning (JOLs) can reactively alter memory itself, a phenomenon termed the reactivity effect. The current study recorded electroencephalography (EEG) signals during the encoding phase of a word list learning task to explore the neurocognitive features associated with JOL reactivity. The behavioral results show that making JOLs reactively enhances recognition performance. The EEG results reveal that, compared with not making JOLs, making JOLs increases P200 and LPC amplitudes and decreases alpha and beta power. Additionally, the signals of event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related desynchronizations (ERDs) partially mediate the reactivity effect. These findings support the enhanced learning engagement theory and the elaborative processing explanation to account for the JOL reactivity effect.

Keywords: elaborative processing; enhanced learning engagement; judgments of learning; neurocognitive features; reactivity effect.

Abstract

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