Rossana De Beni

What people believe about memory.

Two representative samples of adult Norwegians (n=2000) were asked a set of general and specific questions regarding their beliefs and opinions about human memory. The results indicate that on many questions, such as time of the earliest memories, inhibiting effects of collaboration, and memory for dramatic versus ordinary events, the views of the general public concurred with current research findings, and people in general had realistic views about their own memory performance. On other questions, such as the reliability of olfactory as compared with visual and auditory memory, the memory of small children in comparison with that of adults, the likelihood of repression of adult traumatic memories, and on more general questions such as the possibility of training memory and the capacity limitations of long-term memory, a large proportion of the participants expressed views that are less supported by scientific evidence. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Strategic coherence andacademic achievement

Unsuccessful students stand out in many ways, one of which is their lower efficacy in study methods. In the present research we hypothesized that low academic achievement is accompanied by a low ‘strategic coherence’, i.e. by a poor capacity to use the strategies which are considered the most effective to study a text. Study 1 found that low achievement under-graduates have lower strategic coherence than high achievers. Study 2 demonstrated that the less coherent students have a poor study method and low scholastic performance. The paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of strategic coherence for an effective studying.

HOW CAN A STUDENT’S DEPRESSIVE ATTITUDE INTERFERE WITH THE USE OF GOOD SELF-REGULATION SKILLS?

Self-regulation skills, such as organisation, self-evaluation, personal elaboration, metacognitive attitude and strategic awareness are very important predictors of academic achievement. However, research has not studied in depth the factors that facilitate the use of good self-regulatory skills. The present research was intended to study the role of some factors that could affect these self-regulation skills, in particular depressive attitude and motivational beliefs. A group of 246 adolescents, aged between 14 and 18, were administered self-report questionnaires devised to test aspects underlying self-regulation. A preliminary factor analysis confirmed the centrality of the three-hypothesised aspects: motivational beliefs, depressive attitude, and self-regulation-skills. A path analysis revealed that there are important links between motivational beliefs and self-regulation and between depressive attitude and motivational beliefs. Some educational implications are discussed.

Riattivare la memoria nell'invecchiamento : l'intervento strategico-metacognitivo = Re-activating Memory in Late Adulthood : A Strategic Metacognitive Intervention

Riattivare la memoria nellinvecchiamento: lintervento strategico-metacognitivo A metacognitive strategy training was developed for old adults to improve their cognitive performance. 133 old adults participated at 9 training sessions. Results showed the efficacy of this type of intervention in improving cognitive performance and metacognitive attitudes in older adults. Moreover, a significant increase from post-test performance to a follow-up, conducted after six months, was found in memory performance. Taken together these findings highlight the importance of a training program that integrates teaching the use of mnemonic strategies with metacognitive principles to improve old adults’ memory ability.