What determines initial feeling of knowing? Familiarity with question terms, not with the answer.
Abstract
This article is concerned with the issue of metaknowledge, that is, how people determine what they know about a question before they actually answer it. In particular, is it necessary to search memory in order to ascertain whether an answer is likely to be known? Although it might seem reasonable that people first search their memory for an answer before trying some other question-answering strategy, such as figuring out the answer, there is evidence that this is not the case (e.g., Portions of this work were initially presented at the Psychonomics Conference, Chicago, November 1988
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Greater familiarity with cues and terminology for a problem increases the likelihood that a solution is retrieved from memory rather than attending to situationally specific information.
“Greater familiarity with cues and terminology for a particular problem increases the likelihood that a solution will be retrieved from memory instead of attending to situationally specific information before arising at a solution (e.g., Reder & Ritter, 1992).”
From Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health (2010) · cites this paper as Reder & Ritter, 1992
Experts often apply old templates to new situations because they are overconfident and neglect contextual information.
“There is other evidence that experts often attempt to adapt old templates to new situations because of inflated confidence in their abilities to the neglect of contextual information.”
From Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health (2010) · cites this paper as Reder & Ritter, 1992
Cites
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“Greater familiarity with cues and terminology for a particular problem increases the likelihood that a solution will be retrieved from memory instead of attending to situationally specific information before arising at a solution (e.g., Reder & Ritter, 1992).”
BackgroundMonitoring one’s own knowledge during study: A cue-utilization approach to judgments of learning
Koriat, A. (1997) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/0096-3445.126.4.349 · Cited by 1,363 · see citing works
How do we know that we know? The accessibility model of the feeling of knowing
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Neural Correlates for Feeling-of-Knowing
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Understanding metacognitive inferiority on screen by exposing cues for depth of processing
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The cognitive architecture for chaining of two mental operations
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Scaffolded Memory and Metacognitive Feelings
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- Authors
- Reder, L. M., & Ritter, F. E.
- Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
- Published
- 1992-05
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 435-451
- ISSN
- 0278-7393 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1285
- OpenAlex
- W1981911857
- Cited by
- 464
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 4.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
- Keywords
- feeling of knowing, meta-knowledge, familiarity, memory search, metacognition
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