Metamemory Deficit Research Articles

Investigating Retrospective and Prospective Metamemory Judgments During Episodic Memory in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

It is clear evidence that individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) lack confidence in their memory and have low metamemory performance (judgment and accuracy). However, it is still unclear whether low metamemory performance is specific to first, domain general or domain specific, and second, to stimulus domain. To address these issues, we compared individuals diagnosed with OCD and healthy controls (HCs) on recognition, retrospective (judgments of learning [JOL]) and prospective (feeling of knowing [FOK]) metamemory judgments and under three different episodic memory tasks, which consisted of symptom-free, familiar and unfamiliar stimuli (word, scene, and face photo). OCD patients showed lower recognition performance, JOL and FOK judgments, and accuracy in all tasks than HCs. Also, OCD patients were slower than HCs during all cognitive performances. In both groups, metamemory performances were lower in familiar items than unfamiliar items. However, recognition performances were not affected by stimulus type. Our results support the idea of general episodic memory and a metamemory deficit in OCD. Moreover, metamemory deficits in OCD are domain general.

Metamemory and financial decision making in older adults without dementia.

Metamemory refers to self-awareness of one's memory function, and the extent to which metamemory deficit impacts financial decision making is unknown. This study tested the hypothesis that metamemory deficit is associated with poor financial decision making among older adults without dementia. Data came from 502 community-dwelling older adults participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Metamemory deficit was determined empirically by contrasting subjective memory ratings with performance on objective memory tests. Larger discrepancy of self-rated memory scores from performance-based testing scores indicates greater deficit. Financial decision making was assessed using a performance-based measure. Multivariable regression analyses examined the association of metamemory deficit with financial decision making. Participants had a mean age of 83 years and a mean education of 15 years. Approximately 75% were female. On average, participants answered two thirds of the financial decision making questions correctly. Female sex, older age, lower education, and lower financial literacy were correlated with poorer financial decision making. In an ordinal logistic regression model controlled for demographics and financial literacy, an 1SD increase in metamemory deficit reduced the odds of having better financial decision making by approximately 15%, OR: 0.844, 95% CI [0.719-0.991]. This association persisted after further controlling for family income, early life socioeconomic status, depressive symptoms and executive function. Metamemory deficit in older adults is a potential indicator of impaired financial decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Atypical meta-memory evaluation strategy in schizophrenia patients

BackgroundPrevious research has reported that patients with schizophrenia would regard false memories with higher confidence, and this meta-memory deficit was suggested as a neurocognitive marker of schizophrenia. However, how schizophrenia patients determine their memory decision confidence has received scant consideration. This study, therefore, aimed to characterize the extent to which meta-memory evaluation strategy differs between schizophrenia patients and healthy individuals, and how such difference contributes to the patients' meta-memory performance. Methods27 schizophrenia patients and 28 matched healthy controls performed a temporal-order judgement (TOJ) task, in which they judged which movie frame occurred earlier in an encoded video, and then made retrospective confidence rating. Mixed effect regression models were performed to assess the between-group metacognitive evaluation strategy difference and its relationship to clinical symptoms. ResultsCompared to the control group, the patients' confidence ratings were correlated more with the recent confidence history and less with the TOJ-related evidence. The degree of dependence on recent history of confidence was negatively correlated with the severity of positive symptoms. Furthermore, by controlling for the first-order TOJ performance, we observed that the patients discriminated correct memory decisions from the incorrect ones as accurately as the controls. ConclusionThe present investigation revealed that schizophrenia patients tend to use more heuristics in making meta-memory evaluations, and such atypical strategy is related to their clinical symptoms. This study provides new insights into how schizophrenia patients perform meta-memory processes. Future research could consider examining such metacognitive deficits in light of other cognitive domains in psychosis.

In the here and now: Short term memory predictions are preserved in Alzheimer's disease

According to neuropsychological models of anosognosia, there is a failure to transfer on-line awareness of dysfunction into a more generalised long term belief about memory function in Alzheimer's disease. This failure results in specific metamemory deficits for global predictions: patients overestimate their performance before the task but are able to monitor their memory performance after having experienced the task. However, after a delay, they are still not able to make accurate predictions. As previous work has mainly focused on long-term memory, the present study investigates this issue in short-term and working memory. Using both global and item-by-item metacognitive judgements in a digit span task, we showed that Alzheimer's disease patients are as accurate as older adults in monitoring their performance despite impaired memory. When they have the opportunity to test themselves, or when they have already performed the task, patients are able to use feedback to adjust their metacognitive judgements. Overall, these results show that even for a relatively complex task, patients with Alzheimer's disease are aware of their difficulties in the here-and-now.

Optimizing memory strategy use in young and older adults: The role of metamemory and internal strategy use

We explored whether experiencing differential efficacy of reading and generation for memory in an initial learning trial led younger and older adults to improve recall of read items in a subsequent learning trial, leading to a reduction of the generation effect. In the first trial, generation improved the memory performance of both young and older adults. However, in Trial 2, the generation effect remained significant for older adults only, confirming that they did not change the way they processed read items, unlike the young adults. The older adults were also less spontaneously aware that generation led to better memory performance in the first trial, and, in contrast to the young adults, awareness did not result in a reduction of the generation effect. Moreover, the age-related differences in generation effect reduction were mediated by an independent measure of self-reported internal strategy use. However, when an appropriate environmental support was provided between both trials, older adults improved read items recall at the second trial as well as younger ones, leading to an elimination of the generation advantage for both groups. Environmental support reduced the implication of internal strategy use in the generation effect reduction, suggesting that age-related differences in the implementation of effective encoding processes in Trial 2 would be the consequence of a metamemory deficit, and reduced capacity to self-initiate internal strategies.

Everyday memory problems in alcohol abuse and dependence: Frequency, patterns and patient-proxy agreement

Using self-report to assess everyday memory in alcoholics presents challenges given the presence of both memory and metamemory deficits. Accordingly, evaluation of the reliability and validity of proxy ratings as well as the frequency of these memory lapses are of clinical importance. In the present study, 180 patient-proxy dyads completed the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). 31.7% of proxy-rated versus 2.8% of patient-rated prospective memory scores fell in the impaired to below average range. 15% of proxy-rated retrospective memory scores were below average, whereas none of the patients reported problems in this regard. Longer delays between intention formation and action yielded better prospective memory performance, while the opposite was true for retrospective memory. Agreement between patients and proxies was generally poor to fair across severity levels and the magnitude of observed differences was large (standardized response mean > 0.8). For all PRMQ items, exact agreement occurred in 45.3% of the cases. Larger patient-proxy discrepancy was associated with older age, less education and greater disease severity. Proxy ratings were internally consistent, significantly correlated with objective memory performance, and were sensitive to differences in overall PRMQ performance between severity groups. Caution should be used in the interpretations of patients' reports.

Self-predictions of prospective memory in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders: evidence of a metamemory deficit.

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are associated with deficits in prospective memory (PM; "remembering to remember"), conferring risk of daily functioning declines. However, self-perceptions of PM functioning are not reliably associated with PM performance in HIV, suggesting a possible deficit in awareness of PM abilities (meta-PM). Our study examined meta-PM in HAND and its correlates using self-predictions of laboratory-based PM performance. Performance-based PM abilities, self-reported prediction of PM performance, and PM complaints in everyday life were assessed in 49 individuals with HAND, 93 HIV+ without HAND (HIV+ noHAND), and 121 seronegative adults (HIV-). After controlling for group-level differences, HAND was associated with a greater number of PM symptoms in everyday life and worse PM performance when compared with both HIV+ noHAND and HIV- samples. Although HAND individuals reported somewhat lower predictions regarding their laboratory PM performance relative to the other study groups, they nevertheless exhibited significantly greater inaccurate overconfidence in time-based PM abilities. Within the HAND group, overconfidence in time-based meta-PM was associated with executive dysfunction and antiretroviral (ARV) nonadherence. HAND individuals evidenced a moderate deficit in awareness of PM functioning characterized by overconfidence in time-based PM abilities. Overconfidence in PM may result in absence of compensatory strategy use, and lead to increased errors in daily functioning (e.g., ARV nonadherence).

Depression and executive dysfunction contribute to a metamemory deficit among individuals with methamphetamine use disorders

Objective: Chronic methamphetamine (MA) use is associated with moderate deficits in learning and memory, but the extend to which MA users are aware of such memory deficits (i.e., metamemory) is not known. Methods: In the current study, 195 participants with lifetime MA use diagnoses (MA +) and 195 non-MA-using comparison subjects (MA -) underwent comprehensive neuropsychiatry research assessments, including performance-based and self-report measures of episodic memory. Results: MA use disorders, major depressive disorder (MDD), and their interaction were uniquely associated with metamemory functioning, such that MDD increased the likelihood of a metamemory deficit among MA + participants. Within the MA group, individuals who over-estimated their memory abilities demonstrated greater executive dysfunction and lower cognitive reserve. Conclusions: Chronic MA use is associated with reduced awareness of objective deficits in memory acquisition and recall, which is particularly exacerbated by the presence of major depression. Efforts to enhance metamemory accuracy and deployment of compensatory mnemonic strategies may benefit substance abuse treatment outcomes.

Evidence of a meta-memory deficit among chronic methamphetamine users

Evidence of a meta-memory deficit among chronic methamphetamine users

“Forgetting to Remember” in Huntington's Disease: A Study of Laboratory, Semi-Naturalistic, and Self-Perceptions of Prospective Memory

Prospective memory (PM) is dependent on executive processes known to be impaired in Huntington's disease (HD); however, no study to the authors' knowledge has investigated PM in this group. We examined performance-based, semi-naturalistic, and self-reported PM in 20 individuals diagnosed with mild-moderate HD and 20 demographically similar controls. Relative to controls, HD participants demonstrated significantly lower scores in time-based PM, event-based PM (at a trend level), and the semi-naturalistic PM trial, all of which were marked by omission errors. HD participants demonstrated comparable recognition memory for the PM intentions relative to controls. HD and control participants also showed comparable scores in self-reported PM complaints. The results suggest that HD is associated with deficits in the strategic aspects of PM. HD-associated PM deficits also are evident in real-world situations, which may relate to an apparent meta-memory deficit for PM functioning as indicated by HD participants' overestimation of their PM performance on self-report.

Metamemory in children with autism: Exploring “feeling-of-knowing” in episodic and semantic memory.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder primarily affecting social function and communication. Recently, there has been an interest in whether people with ASD also show memory deficits. Studies in ASD have revealed subtle impairments on tasks requiring participants to learn new information (episodic memory), but intact performance on general knowledge tasks (semantic memory). The novelty of this study was to explore metamemory (i.e., awareness of memory performance) and to examine whether children with ASD suffer from a generalized metamemory deficit common to all forms of memory, or would only present deficits on episodic metamemory tasks. To assess metamemory functioning we administered 2 feeling-of-knowing (FOK) tasks, 1 for episodic and 1 for semantic materials. In these tasks, participants are asked to predict the likelihood of subsequently recognizing currently unrecalled information. It was found that children with autism made inaccurate FOK predictions, but only for episodic materials. A specific deficit in meta-cognition emerges for only one set of materials. We argue that this deficit can be conceived of as reflecting a deficit in recollection, stemming from an inability to cast the self in the past and retrieve information about the study episode.

Impact of emotionality on memory and meta-memory in schizophrenia using video sequences

Background and ObjectivesA vast amount of memory and meta-memory research in schizophrenia shows that these patients perform worse on memory accuracy and hold false information with strong conviction compared to healthy controls. So far, studies investigating these effects mainly used traditional static stimulus material like word lists or pictures. The question remains whether these memory and meta-memory effects are also present in (1) more near-life dynamic situations (i.e., using standardized videos) and (2) whether emotionality has an influence on memory and meta-memory deficits (i.e., response confidence) in schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. MethodTwenty-seven schizophrenia patients and 24 healthy controls were administered a newly developed emotional video paradigm with five videos differing in emotionality (positive, two negative, neutral, and delusional related). After each video, a recognition task required participants to make old–new discriminations along with confidence ratings, investigating memory accuracy and meta-memory deficits in more dynamic settings. ResultsFor all but the positively valenced video, patients recognized fewer correct items compared to healthy controls, and did not differ with regard to the number of false memories for related items. In line with prior findings, schizophrenia patients showed more high-confident responses for misses and false memories for related items but displayed underconfidence for hits when compared to healthy controls, independent of emotionality. LimitationsLimited sample size and control group; combined valence and arousal indicator for emotionality; general psychopathology indicator. ConclusionsEmotionality differentially moderated memory accuracy, biases in schizophrenia patients compared to controls. Moreover, the meta-memory deficits identified in static paradigms also manifest in more dynamic settings near-life settings and seem to be independent of emotionality.

Alteraciones de memoria en daño cerebral

Frontal cortex is involved in important memory processes but its role is different from that associated with structures in the medial temporal lobe and diencephalon. While damage in the latter structures produces profound and global anterograde amnesia, damage to the frontal cortex is manifested by an specific group of memory impairments and distortions like confabulations, source amnesia, prospective memory and metamemory deficit, or impaired free recall. Frontal lobes is less involved in memory acquisition per se than it is in leading the strategic processes that support memory encoding, retrieval and monitoring.

Investigating the Corrective Effect of Forewarning on Memory and Meta-Memory Deficits in Schizophrenia Patients

A number of recent studies investigating (meta-)memory have detected that memory accuracy is decreased in schizophrenia and that at the same time patients hold false information with strong conviction. The aim of the present study was to test whether increasing meta-memory awareness (i.e., forewarning) could attenuate this pattern of results. Forty-seven schizophrenia patients and 47 healthy controls were administered two pictures of a visual false memory paradigm, one with forewarning and the second without. After both pictures, a recognition task required participants to make old-new discriminations along with confidence ratings. Results showed that, although the standard memory and meta-memory response patterns were replicated in this study, in which schizophrenia patients show decreased memory accuracy and knowledge corruption, the initial forewarning did not influence the robustness of these meta-memory deficits within schizophrenia patients.

Isolating Metamemory Deficits in the Self-Regulated Learning of Adults With ADHD

ADHD in adulthood is associated with chronic academic impairments and problems with strategic memory encoding on standardized memory assessments, but little is known about self-regulated learning that might guide intervention. Objective: Examine the contribution of metamemory judgment accuracy and use of learning strategies to self-regulated learning in adults with ADHD, focusing on the use of self-testing. Method: A total of 34 adults with ADHD and 34 matched controls predicted their memory performance and regulated their learning of paired associates. Results: Adults with ADHD were as accurate as controls at predicting memory performance, despite remembering fewer words. By observation and self-report, they were less likely to use self-testing to learn the pairs. Conclusion: Across groups, self-testing was associated with significantly better recall and largely accounted for differences between diagnostic groups. Adults with ADHD often failed to employ a strategy that was associated with improved memory, identifying an intervention target that may improve self-regulated learning.

Metamemory and prospective memory in Parkinson's disease.

Metamemory is integral for strategizing about memory intentions. This study investigated the prospective memory (PM) deficit in Parkinson's disease (PD) from a metamemory viewpoint, with the aim of examining whether metamemory deficits might contribute to PM deficits in PD. Sixteen patients with PD and 16 healthy older adult controls completed a time-based PM task (initiating a key press at two specified times during an ongoing task), and an event-based PM task (initiating a key press in response to animal words during an ongoing task). To measure metamemory participants were asked to predict and postdict their memory performance before and after completing the tasks, as well as complete a self-report questionnaire regarding their everyday memory function. The PD group had no impairment, relative to controls, on the event-based task, but had prospective (initiating the key press) and retrospective (recalling the instructions) impairments on the time-based task. The PD group also had metamemory impairments on the time-based task; they were inaccurate at predicting their performance before doing the task but, became accurate when making postdictions. This suggests impaired metamemory knowledge but preserved metamemory monitoring. There were no group differences regarding PD patients' self-reported PM performance on the questionnaire. These results reinforce previous findings that PM impairments in PD are dependent on task type. Several accounts of PM failures in time-based tasks are presented, in particular, ways in which mnemonic and metacognitive deficits may contribute to the difficulties observed on the time-based task.

Medial prefrontal cortex plays a critical and selective role in ‘feeling of knowing’ meta-memory judgments

The frontal lobes are thought to play a role in the monitoring of memory performance, or ‘meta-memory’, but the specific circuits involved have yet to be definitively established. Medial prefrontal cortex in general and the anterior cingulate cortex in particular, have been implicated in other forms of monitoring, such as error and conflict monitoring. Here, we tested the hypothesis that medial prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in memory monitoring, aiming to determine whether this region contributed to all, or only some classes of meta-memory judgments. We also investigated the relationship between these judgments and memory performance itself. Three types of meta-memory judgment were measured in 5 subjects with focal damage to medial prefrontal cortex, with maximal overlap in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, compared to 19 healthy, demographically matched control subjects performing a face–name episodic memory task. Judgment-of-learning accuracy was not affected by such damage. In contrast, both recall confidence and feeling-of-knowing judgments were impaired. Memory performance was itself impaired in the patient group, so we performed a second experiment to examine the relationship between memory and meta-memory deficits. In an easier memory task, where patients performed as well as controls, recall confidence accuracy improved to within the control range despite medial prefrontal damage. In contrast, feeling-of-knowing judgments remained less accurate in the patient group. These results argue that medial prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in generating accurate recall confidence and feeling-of-knowing judgments, but is not necessary for judgment-of-learning. The role of this region in feeling-of-knowing seems to be, at least in part, independent of its role in memory itself.

Memory and metamemory in schizophrenia: a liberal acceptance account of psychosis

In previous studies we suggested that liberal acceptance (LA) represents a fundamental cognitive bias in schizophrenia and may explain why patients are more willing to accept weak response alternatives and display overconfidence in incorrect responses. The aim of the present study was to test a central assumption of the LA account: false alarms in schizophrenia should be particularly increased when the distractor-target resemblance is weak relative to a control group. Sixty-eight schizophrenia patients were compared to 25 healthy controls on a visual memory task. At encoding, participants studied eight complex displays, each consisting of a unique pairing of four stimulus attributes: symbol, shape, position and colour. At recognition, studied items were presented along with distractors that resembled the targets to varying degrees (i.e. the match between distractors and targets ranged from one to three attributes). Participants were required to make old/new judgements graded for confidence. The hypotheses were confirmed: false recognition was increased for patients compared to controls for weakly and moderately related distractors only, whereas strong lure items induced similar levels of false recognition for both groups. In accordance with prior research, patients displayed a significantly reduced confidence gap and enhanced knowledge corruption compared to controls. Finally, higher neuroleptic dosage was related to a decreased number of high-confident ratings. These data assert that LA is a core mechanism contributing to both enhanced acceptance of weakly supported response alternatives and metamemory deficits, and this may be linked to the emergence of positive symptomatology.

Aging Influences on Working Memory for Hand Movements: A Test of the Metamemory Deficit Hypothesis

This study examined the role verbal labels play in working memory for hand movements between young and older adults. All young adults formed verbal labels spontaneously to remember hand movements, whereas only 20% of the older adults did so. After instructed to use verbal labels, the older adults performed at a level close to the level of the young adults. These results indicated an age-related decline of the ability to spontaneously recruit a verbal labeling strategy that can be learned and retained. However, there was no significant interaction between age group and instruction, suggesting the need for further investigation into factors other than verbal labels, including the capacity of the visuospatial memory, interference from earlier items, and fatigue.

Alteraciones de memoria en daño cerebral [Memory impairment in frontal brain damage

Frontal cortex is involved in important memory processes but its role is different from that associated with structures in the medial temporal lobe and diencephalon. While damage in the latter structures produces profound and global anterograde amnesia, damage to the frontal cortex is manifested by an specific group of memory impairments and distortions like confabulations, source amnesia, prospective memory and metamemory deficit, or impaired free recall. Frontal lobes is less involved in memory acquisition per se than it is in leading the strategic processes that support memory encoding, retrieval and monitoring.