The roles of competition, target accessibility, and cue familiarity in metamemory for word pairs

Two experiments examined metamemory ratings following differing amounts of retroactive interference for paired associates. Participants made both feeling of knowing (FOK) ratings and judgments of learning (JOLs) for first-list responses after learning different types of second lists. Both types of ratings were higher when stimuli were repeated and responses were associates across two Lists than when stimuli were repeated and responses were different. Repetition of either the stimuli or the responses across lists produced lower ratings than nonrepetition, especially for recalled responses. The results provided support for competition as an important factor in JOLs and FOKs following interference.