Effort avoidance contributes to reminder overuse beyond metacognitive error¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Financial incentives for performance significantly reduced, but did not eliminate, the bias towards external reminders. → Gilbert 2023

Evidence¶

Gilbert 2023¶

Gilbert, S. J., Boldt, A., Sachdeva, C., Scarampi, C., & Tsai, P.-C. (2023). Outsourcing Memory to External Tools: A Review of 'Intention Offloading'. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02139-4

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports Sachdeva and Gilbert (2020), who argued that reward-sensitivity of the reminder bias is diagnostic of effort avoidance rather than metacognitive error alone. No effect size is printed.

"the bias towards external reminders was significantly reduced, but not eliminated, when participants received a financial reward for their performance of the task"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Achievement Goal Orientation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Individuals systematically overuse reminders relative to the optimal offloading level, and reminder bias correlates with confidence and metacognitive bias — related
• In Experiment 1, a five-trial metacognitive prediction-plus-feedback intervention significantly reduced reminder bias, producing more optimal reminder-setting behaviour — related
• Feedback interventions show phase-specific effects: advice feedback reduces reminder bias, but ranking feedback alters beliefs without increasing offloading — related
• In Experiment 1, lower confidence predicted greater offloading beyond objective performance in the no-feedback group, but not in the feedback group — related
• In Experiment 1, participants in both groups were significantly biased towards excessive reminder use relative to the optimal strategy — related
• Both performance-oriented goals and effort minimization motivate offloading, and effort's effect disappears when performance monitoring is considered simultaneously — a broader claim this one bears on
• External reminders dramatically reduce forgetting of delayed intentions — related
• Higher-value intentions are more likely to be offloaded than lower-value ones — related
• Participants show a significant reminder bias (overuse of reminders relative to the optimal strategy) when reminders are framed as gains — related
• Participants still offload more than optimal under loss framing — related
• Within-person reminders of implementation intentions improve students' short-term study behaviour — related
• Individuals show a systematic positive reminder bias, setting more reminders than optimal — related
• Shifting information to external aids enhances task performance with greater gains under high cognitive load — related