Uninformative anchoring effect in judgments of learning

This experimental study examined whether the uninformative anchoring effect, which should be ignored, on judgments of learning (JOLs) was eliminated through the learning experience. In the experiments, the participants were asked to predict whether their performance on an upcoming test would be higher or lower than the anchor value (80% in the high anchor condition or 20% in the low anchor condition) before learning. Experiments 1a and 1b obtained consistent results, regardless of item difficulty. Specifically, the results showed that both the pre- and post-study JOLs in the high anchor condition were higher than those in the low anchor condition. Further, participants in the high (vs. low) anchor conditions made higher item-by-item JOLs during the learning process. This anchoring effect was maintained throughout the learning process. In contrast, there was no significant difference in recall performance between the two conditions. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the uninformative anchoring effect was not eliminated by obtaining test experience through a practice task before presenting anchoring information. These findings suggest that uninformative anchoring biases JOLs, but its effects are not eliminated by the learning experience.