When asked to predict how they will perform on an upcoming exam, students are often poorly calibrated, typically in the direction of overpredicting their performance. Research shows that low-performing students’ calibration tends to remain poor across multiple tests over the course of a semester. We tested whether these students remain confident in these erroneously high grade predictions across the semester or whether their confidence wanes, suggesting some degree of metacognitive awareness. In two studies, students made grade predictions prior to taking four in-class exams and then rated their level of confidence in their predictions. Results from both studies showed that miscalibration and confidence remained stable across tests, suggesting that low-performing students continued to believe that they would perform well on upcoming exams despite prior evidence to the contrary.

Interpolated testing can reduce mind-wandering and proactive interference, and improve note-taking. However, recent research using face-name-profession triads, has also shown that interpolated testing can impair new learning (Davis, Chan, & Wilford, 2017 Davis, S. D. , Chan, J. C. , & Wilford, M. M. (2017). The dark side of interpolated testing: Frequent switching between retrieval and encoding impairs new learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(4), 434–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.002 [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ). In the current study, we further examined the impact of switching from testing to new learning, but with objectively-true materials. The study employed a 2 (Interpolated task: Test vs. Restudy) × 3 (Task-switch frequency: 0, 11, 35) between-participants design. In two experiments, participants restudied or retrieved originally-learned flag-country associations and learned new flag-capital (Experiment 1) or flag-export (Experiment 2) associations. Task-switch frequency varied such that participants switched to new learning trial(s) after every restudy/test trial (35-switches), after every three restudy/test trials (11-switches), or did not switch at all (0-switch). The results further demonstrate that retrieving previously-learned material can impair learning of new associations by replicating Davis et al. ( 2017 Davis, S. D. , Chan, J. C. , & Wilford, M. M. (2017). The dark side of interpolated testing: Frequent switching between retrieval and encoding impairs new learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(4), 434–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.002 [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ) with objectively-true materials.

Although engagement in cognitively-demanding activities is beneficial for older adults, research suggests that older adults may be less motivated to engage in these types of activities because of the increased age-related costs associated with task engagement and their perceptions of the task demands. Across three studies, we investigated if older adults’ subjective age predicted their perceptions of effort over the course of a working memory task. Younger and older adults reported their subjective age and then completed an increasingly difficult series of working memory trials, indicating perceived task demands and effort after each trial. Results from all three studies showed that there was no age difference in performance or in perceptions of task difficulty, contrary to previous results. Also, there was no significant association between older adults’ subjective age and perceived effort, suggesting that subjective age may not be a reliable predictor of perceptions of task demands in older adults. Participant characteristics and the testing environment may play a role in determining the relationship between subjective age and perceived effort.