Suzanna L. Penningroth

A Course Designed to Improve Psychological Critical Thinking

We developed a 1-credit freshman-level course designed to enhance psychological critical thinking. We based the new curriculum on Stanovichs (2004) text, with an emphasis on active learning and critically evaluating claims by applying scientific concepts. To assess the effectiveness of this course, we used a pretest–posttest design with a quasi-experimental control group. At posttest, students in the psychological science course showed greater improvement on psychological critical thinking than students in a comparison group. Therefore, we recommend the techniques used in this instructional intervention to help college students improve their critical thinking skills.

Age-Related Differences in Goals: Testing Predictions from Selection, Optimization, and Compensation Theory and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Two prominent theories of lifespan development, socioemotional selectivity theory and selection, optimization, and compensation theory, make similar predictions for differences in the goal representations of younger and older adults. Our purpose was to test whether the goals of younger and older adults differed in ways predicted by these two theories. Older adults and two groups of younger adults (college students and non-students) listed their current goals, which were then coded by independent raters. Observed age group differences in goals generally supported both theories. Specifically, when compared to younger adults, older adults reported more goals focused on maintenance/loss prevention, the present, emotion-focus and generativity, and social selection, and less goals focused on knowledge acquisition and the future. However, contrary to prediction, older adults also showed less goal focusing than younger adults, reporting goals from a broader set of life domains (e.g., health, property/possessions, friendship).

Free recall of everyday retrospective and prospective memories: the intention-superiority effect is moderated by action versus state orientation and by gender.

Individual differences in the relative accessibility of everyday memories were investigated. Based on the theory of action control described by Kuhl and colleagues (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994b), an intention-superiority effect (heightened activation and accessibility of intentions—i.e., prospective memories—compared to retrospective memories) was predicted for state-oriented individuals, but not action-oriented individuals. As predicted, only state-oriented individuals showed an intention-superiority effect, recalling more prospective than retrospective real-life memories. In addition, females, but not males, showed an intention-superiority effect in retrieval of the most accessible memories, memories recalled in the first minute. These results show important moderator variables for the intention-superiority effect and extend previous research to real-life, everyday memories.

When does the intention-superiority effect occur? Activation patterns before and after task completion, and moderating variables

This experiment investigated the intention-superiority effect, potential moderators of the effect, including personality disposition (i.e., state vs. action orientation) and cue source (self vs. experimenter), and the fate of the effect after performance. The intention-superiority effect was defined as greater accessibility for intention-related words than words to be remembered. Accessibility was assessed with lexical decision latencies for words from short action scripts, and activation patterns were measured before and after scripts were performed. A general preperformance intention-superiority effect was replicated, but this effect depended on a personality disposition by cue interaction. For the state-oriented group, the effect occurred when participants expected performance to be self cued, but not experimenter cued. For the action-oriented group, the effect occurred when participants expected performance to be experimenter cued, but not self cued. After script performance, a sustained intention-superiority effect was found. Possible reasons for the differences in results found in this study and past studies are discussed.

Social motivation in prospective memory: higher importance ratings and reported performance rates for social tasks.

Few studies have addressed social motivation in prospective memory (PM). In a pilot study and two main studies, we examined whether social PM tasks possess a motivational advantage over nonsocial PM tasks. In the pilot study and Study 1, participants listed their real-life important and less important PM tasks. Independent raters categorized the PM tasks as social or nonsocial. Results from both studies showed a higher proportion of tasks rated as social when important tasks were requested than when less important tasks were requested. In Study 1, participants also reported whether they had remembered to perform each PM task. Reported performance rates were higher for tasks rated as social than for those rated as nonsocial. Finally, in Study 2, participants rated the importance of two hypothetical PM tasks, one social and one nonsocial. The social PM task was rated higher in importance. Overall, these findings suggest that social PM tasks are viewed as more important than nonsocial PM tasks and they are more likely to be performed. We propose that consideration of the social relevance of PM will lead to a more complete and ecologically valid theoretical description of PM performance.

Prospective memory tasks related to goals and concerns are rated as more important by both young and older adults

There has been little research on variables that affect importance ratings for real prospective memory tasks (e.g., remembering to take medications). Our primary purpose was to test a claim in the motivational-cognitive model of prospective memory, namely that prospective memory tasks highly related to a person’s goals and concerns will be rated as more important. We also tested whether this relationship held in both young and older adults. A secondary purpose was to investigate age-related differences in the perceived importance of prospective memory tasks. Older adults and two younger adult groups completed a questionnaire that assessed current prospective memory tasks, their importance, and whether the tasks were related to participants’ goals and concerns. As predicted, participants provided higher importance ratings for prospective memory tasks that were highly relevant to their personal goals or concerns, and this was true for both young and older adults. Task importance ratings did not differ for older adults and young college students; however, young nonstudents rated their prospective memory tasks as less important than the other two groups. In all three groups, females gave higher prospective memory task importance ratings than males. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the importance of a prospective memory task is partly determined by its goal-relatedness. This newly demonstrated link suggests important avenues for future research, including research on the mechanisms through which goals improve prospective memory performance.

Implementation intentions forge a strong cue–response link and boost prospective memory performance

Prospective memory (PM) performance (i.e., remembering to perform intentions) is often in the service of higher goals and thus could be improved through better self-regulation. We examined the effectiveness of three self-regulatory strategies in a laboratory event-based PM task: implementation intention (i.e., planning in an if/when–then format), rehearsal (i.e., planning not in an if/when–then format) and upward counterfactual (“if only…” thoughts about a past performance). The cue and response mentioned in all three strategies were held constant, such that only format and timing (past vs. future orientation) of the strategy varied. Results indicated that the implementation intention strategy strengthened the cue–response link and improved PM performance over baseline, relative to a control condition. Neither rehearsal nor counterfactual strategies had significant benefits, relative to a control condition. These findings suggest that the if/when–then plan format of implementation intentions may be a critical feature of their effectiveness in retrieving and executing intentions.