Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (5): 664-664.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.05.06

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Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cues on Judgment of Learning among Elementary School Students

XIA Liyan, ZHANG Lei, GAO Heming, QI Mingming   

  1. School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029
  • Published:2026-09-12

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Abstract: Based on the cue-utilization model, this study investigated the effects of intrinsic cues (arousal and valence of study items) and extrinsic cues (directed forgetting instructions) on judgment of learning (JOL) among third- and fifth-grade elementary school students, and revealed the possible interaction mechanism between them. Participants were instructed to remember or forget pictures that varied in arousal (high vs. low, Experiment 1) or valence (neutral vs. negative, Experiment 2), after which they provided JOLs regarding their confidence in remembering or forgetting each image. The results showed that: (1) Children’s JOLs were influenced by directed forgetting instructions (remember > forget) and arousal level (high arousal > low arousal); (2) The effect of valence on JOLs (neutral > negative) was independent of directed forgetting instructions for third graders, but for fifth graders, it depended on such instructions (neutral > negative under remember instructions, no difference under forget instructions); (3) Fifth graders exhibited better absolute accuracy than third graders. These findings suggest that elementary school children possess the ability to utilize both intrinsic (arousal and valence) and extrinsic (directed forgetting instructions) cues in making JOLs, and this ability improves with age.

Key words: judgment of learning, cue, directed forgetting, children, arousal, valence

CLC Number: 

  • G442
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