Abstract
Cognitive task performance is a dynamic process that evolves over time, starting
from the first encounters with a task. An important aspect of these task
dynamics is the employment of strategies to support successful performance and
task acquisition. Focusing on episodic memory performance, we: (1) tested two
hypotheses on the effects of novelty and task difficulty on strategy use, (2)
replicated our previous results regarding strategy use in a novel memory task,
and (3) evaluated whether repeated open-ended strategy queries affect task
performance and/or strategy use. The present pre-registered online study
comprised 161 adult participants who were recruited through the Prolific
crowdsourcing platform. We employed two separate 5-block list learning tasks,
one with 10 pseudowords and the other with 18 common nouns, and collected recall
performance and strategy reports for each block. Using Bayesian linear mixed
effects models, the present findings (1) provide some support for the hypothesis
that task-initial strategy development is not triggered only by task novelty,
but can appear also in a familiar, moderately demanding task; (2) replicate
earlier findings from an adaptive working memory task indicating strategy use
from the beginning of a task, associations between strategy use and objective
task performance, and only modest agreement between open-ended versus list-based
strategy reports; and (3) indicate that repeated open-ended strategy reports do
not affect objective recall. We conclude that strategy use is an important
aspect of memory performance right from the start of a task, and it undergoes
development at the initial stages depending on task characteristics. In a larger
perspective, the present results concur with the views of skill learning and
adaptivity in cognitive task performance.
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