Previous studies of metacognitive age differences in skill acquisition strategies have relied exclusively on tasks with a processing shift from an algorithm to retrieval strategy. Older adults’ demonstrated reluctance to shift strategies in such tasks could reflect either a specific aversion to a memory retrieval strategy or a general, inertial resistance to strategy change. alphabet verification task (AVT) affords a non-retrieval-based strategy shift. Participants verify the continuation of alphabet strings such as D E F G [4] L, with the bracketed digit indicating a number of letters to be skipped. When all deviations are restricted to the letter-digit-letter portion, participants can speed their responses by selectively attend only to that part of the stimulus. We adapted the AVT to include conditions which promoted shift to a retrieval strategy, a selective attention strategy, or both strategies. Item-level strategy reports were validated by eye movement data. Older adults shifted more slowly to the retrieval strategy but more quickly to the selective attention strategy than young adults, indicating a retrieval-strategy avoidance. Strategy confidence and perceived strategy difficulty correlated with shift to the two strategies in both age groups. Perceived speed of responses with each strategy specifically correlated with older adults’ strategy choices, suggesting that some older adults avoid retrieval because they do not appreciate its efficiency benefits.
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机译：先前关于技能获取策略中元认知年龄差异的研究仅依赖于任务，其处理过程已从算法转换为检索策略。老年人表现出不愿在此类任务中转移策略的情况可能反映了对记忆检索策略的特定反感或对策略更改的普遍惯性抵抗。字母验证任务（AVT）提供了基于非检索的策略转换。参加者验证了字母字符串（例如D E F G [4] L）的延续性，方括号内的数字表示要跳过的字母数。当所有偏差都限制在字母数字部分时，参与者可以通过仅选择性地参与刺激的那一部分来加快其响应速度。我们对AVT进行了调整，使其包含促进转移到检索策略，选择性注意力策略或两者的条件。项目级策略报告已通过眼动数据进行了验证。与年轻人相比，老年人向检索策略的转移速度较慢，但向选择性注意策略的转移速度较快，这表明避免了检索策略。策略信心和感知策略难度与在两个年龄段中都转向两种策略相关。每种策略的感知响应速度与老年人的策略选择特别相关，这表明一些老年人避免检索，因为他们不欣赏它的效率优势。
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