Evidence for intact memory monitoring in Alzheimer's disease: metamemory sensitivity at encoding

Previous research claiming that there is a metamemory deficit in Alzheimer' s Disease (AD) has been based on paradigms in which metamemory judgements a re compared with performance. These methods confound predictive accuracy wi th very poor memory performance. In the experiments presented here this con found is removed by focusing on the sensitivity of metamemory judgements to item differences at encoding, rather than on predictive accuracy. In Exper iment 1 participants studied words of high or low recallability, and either made judgements of learning (JOLs) or declared recall readiness. It was fo und that the AD group discriminate between items in their metamemory judgem ents to the same extent as age matched controls. Both groups rated the high ly recallable words as being more likely to be recalled, and allocated more study time to low recallability items. In Experiment 3 participants were a sked to rank the likelihood of recall of items that varied in objective rec allability. Once again, AD patients were as sensitive to objective differen ces in stimuli as controls. Therefore, using measures based on sensitivity to item differences, we find no evidence of a metamemory deficit at encodin g in AD. The findings are discussed in terms of metamemory functioning in A D, and its relationship with memory performance. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.