Age-related differences in the relation between monitoring and control of learning.

The manner in which aging affects the utilization of monitoring in the allocation of study time was investigated by having adults learn paired associates during two study-recall tests. First participants learned the 40 critical cue-target pairs. Then they had to recall the target of each pair and make a feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgment. Finally, they studied the 40 cue-target pairs on a self-paced study trial and then recalled the items. A total of 24 elderly adults and 23 young adults served as participants. The results indicated that every group of subjects allocated their self-paced study time partly in accordance with their FOK judgments, with items higher in FOK receiving less self-paced study time. The magnitude of this relationship was significantly different in young and old subjects. Moreover, age-related differences in the allocation of study time accounted for the age-related differences in memory performance.