When People's Judgments of Learning (JOLs) are Extremely Accurate at Predicting Subsequent Recall: The “Delayed-JOL Effect”

Abstract

Judgments of learning (JOLs), which pertain to knowing what one knows and which help to guide self-paced study during acquisition, have almost never been very accurate at predicting subsequent recall. We recently discovered a situation in which the JOLs can be made to be extremely accurate. Here we report the conditions under which such high accuracy occurs, namely, when the JOL made on the stimulus cue is delayed until shortly after study rather than being made immediately after study. Discussion is focused both on theoretical explanations (to be explored in future research) and on potential applications of the delayed-JOL effect.