Impulsivity and strategy transfer: metamemory as mediator.

Acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of organizational strategies were studied as a function of impulsivity-reflectivity and metamemory. In Experiment 1, 64 second- and third-grade children, identified as impulsive or reflective, participated in strategy training and transfer sessions; 25 children in a control condition received the same tasks without strategy training. Strategy and metamemory scores were significantly higher for reflective than impulsive children. Metamemory predicted strategic behavior when cognitive tempo was removed. In Experiment 2, 80 children were given an expanded metamemory battery designed to assess verbalized knowledge of memory processes. Children in the experimental condition were trained to use an organizational strategy and later tested for its maintenance and transfer. Strategy scores were higher for the reflective children during transfer but not training, suggesting a relationship between cognitive tempo and the ability to use strategies in new contexts. Reflective children were again found to have higher metamemory scores. The correlation between metamemory and strategy use with cognitive tempo partialed out was significant, whereas the tempo-strategy use correlation was nonsignificant when metamemory was removed. Strategy maintenance and generalization in impulsive and reflective children appear mediated by metamemorial processes.