We investigate the mechanisms of ease of learning judgments (EOL); a type of metacognitive monitoring during memory tasks. Assuming that EOL judgments utilize information about a memory item, such as its concreteness and frequency, we predicted that accessing such information from semantic memory would enhance elaboration of the item and, in turn, increase the probabilities of subsequent retrieval. We compared memory performance across EOL judgment and shallow processing (phonological processing) task conditions during incidental learning (Experiments 1 and 2). The results indicated that memory performance was superior in the EOL judgments condition compared to the shallow processing condition. Experiment 3 investigated whether the results for EOL judgments would be observed irrespective of intention to memorize and replicated the enhanced memory performance for intentional learning. These findings indicate that the cue-utilization approach to metacognitive monitoring, previously proposed in relation to judgments of learning (JOL), is also applicable to explaining EOL judgments.

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The present study investigated whether presenting of a record of participant responses and corresponding outcomes within active contingency tasks influenced the probability-of-responding [P(R)] effect. In two experiments, participants (n=132) decided whether or not they would administer an experimental drug to 50 different patients, presented on a computer screen one-by-one, and, at the end of the session, they estimated drug efficacy. We manipulated the presence or absence of a record of prior responses-outcomes in both experiments and manipulated experienced outcome density between the experiments, contrasting high (Experiment 1) and low (Experiment 2) densities. Regression and partial correlation analyses were conducted on the data. Within the high outcome-density conditions, presenting a record produced a higher P(R) effect than in the no record condition. In the low outcome-density condition, presenting a record produced veridical contingency judgments based on the actual contingency, whereas the no record condition led to non-systematic results. Partial correlation analyses revealed that the simple regression line relating estimated drug efficacy to frequency of administrations may reflect not only the P(R) but also actual contingencies.

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Lexical decision times for homophones are usually longer than are those for nonhomophones, a phenomenon known as the homophone effect. However, experimental results regarding lexical decision times for Japanese homophones with multiple mates were inconsistent. We considered that this inconsistency could be due to the variance in the phonological familiarity regarding the homophones. Accordingly, we measured the lexical decision times for Japanese homophones with multiple mates and for those with a single mate by controlling their phonological familiarity. The results showed that homophone effects were found for both, but the effects for the single-mate homophones were smaller than were those for the multiple-mate homophones. Further analysis revealed that homophone effects for multiple-mate homophones were found even when the presented homophones were the most frequent mates, unlike the findings for English homophones. These results suggest that both phonological familiarity and the number of mates of homophones influence lexical decision times in native Japanese readers, and further, that in the case of multiple-mate homophones, multiple mates are activated irrespective of their frequency, which prolongs lexical decision times.

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This study examines how individuals become aware of mind wandering (task-unrelated thoughts) by focusing on the role of external stimuli as prompts. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in a sustained attention-to-response task. They were instructed to press a key whenever they found their minds wandering. Three types of critical trials occurred randomly: supraliminal-cue trials where a visible cue-stimulus (red circle) was presented for 300 ms at a fixation point, subliminal-cue trials where a cue stimulus (white circle) was presented for 10 ms at the fixation point, and control trials where no cue stimulus was presented. The results indicate that participants detected their mind wandering more often after the presentation of both supraliminal and subliminal cues than after control trials. Furthermore, Experiment 2, which used the probe-caught method for measuring mind wandering, found that the probabilities of mind wandering occurrences did not differ among the supraliminal, subliminal and control cue conditions. These findings suggest that abrupt external stimuli trigger awareness of mind wandering irrespective of awareness for cue presentations.

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