Relationship between agreeableness and metamemory, moderated by self-esteem

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between agreeableness and metamemory, moderated by self-esteem. While most research has revolved around metacognition, this study seeks to look into its subcomponent—metamemory. Metamemory encompasses knowledge surrounding functions, difficulties, and strategies of memory, with a variation being judgments of learning (JOLs). JOLs are feedback given after learning and are used to predict subsequent test performance. Beyond JOLs, questionnaires similarly assess metamemory, a notable one being the Metamemory in Adulthood questionnaire revised (MIA-revised). In the current study, JOLs are presented as a procedural prime to elicit the likelihood of participants applying a similar cognitive procedure when filling up the MIA-revised questionnaire. Moving on, out of the Big-Five personality traits, agreeableness was selected as the independent variable along with self-esteem as a moderator, both for their relations to a social aspect. A total of 45 participants aged 19 to 26 participated in this study. Participants were assigned one of three conditions (i.e. easy, difficult, or control), and were presented ratings of past participants suggesting easy or difficult levels of task difficulty respectively. Control participants did not view any past ratings. Participants did a word-pair task, rated JOLs, completed a mental paper folding task, and recalled the word-pairs. Next, participants filled in the MIA-revised questionnaire measuring metamemory, the Big-Five Inventory measuring agreeableness, and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale measuring self-esteem. Overall, while the hypotheses were not found to be significant, neuroticism and conscientiousness were found to have a significant effect on metamemory, and this relationship is moderated by self-esteem.