Encoding fluency is a cue used for judgments about learning

The authors used paired-associate learning to investigate the hypothesis that the speed of generating an interactive image (encoding fluency) influenced 2 metacognitive judgments: judgments of learning (JOLs) and quality of encoding ratings (QUEs). Results from Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that latency of a keypress indicating successful image formation was negatively related to both JOLs and QUEs even though latency was unrelated to recall. Experiment 3 demonstrated that when concrete and abstract items were mixed in a single list, latency was related to concreteness, judgments, and recall. However, item concreteness and fluency influenced judgments independently of one another. These outcomes suggest an important role of encoding fluency in the formation of metacognitive judgments about learning and future recall. Metacognition focuses on the interplay between processes of monitoring (evaluating the cognitive system) and control (selec-tion and execution of cognitive mechanisms), with the assumption that monitoring can and should be used to adjust control processes to achieve desired goals (e.g., maximizing rates of learning; see Nelson, 1996). For example, when an individual is attempting to encode new material for an upcoming test, how does she or he monitor how well the material has been learned? Effective moni-toring of learning is critical for achieving optimal control of subsequent study (Nelson & Narens, 1990; Thiede & Dunlosky, 1999). Accordingly, understanding how an individual assesses his or her own learning may provide insight into various aspects of self-regulated study, such as why self-paced study appears subop-timal under some conditions (Leonesio & Nelson, 1990; Mazzoni & Cornoldi, 1993; Thiede & Dunlosky, 1999). The present re-search empirically evaluated the hypothesis that the fluency of generating imagery mediators influences metacognitive judgments about learning, even when such fluency is not diagnostic of sub-sequent recall