Prediction accuracy of young and middle-aged adults in memory for familiarand unfamiliar texts

This study investigated the influence of age, familiarity, and level of exp osure on the metamemorial skill of prediction accuracy on a future test. Yo ung (17 to 23 years old) and middle-aged adults (35 to 50 years old) were a sked to predict their memory for text material. Participants made predictio ns on a familiar text and an unfamiliar text, at three different levels of exposure to each. The middle-aged adults were superior to the younger adult s at predicting performance. This finding indicates that metamemory may inc rease from youth to middle age. Other findings include superior prediction accuracy for unfamiliar compared to familiar material, a result conflicting with previous findings, and an interaction between level of exposure and f amiliarity that appears to modify the main effects of those variables.