Browsing by Author "Marsh, EJ"

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    Borrowing Personal Memories
    (Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2015-01-01) Brown, AS; Croft Caderao, K; Fields, LM; Marsh, EJ
    © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The present investigation documents memory borrowing in college-age students, defined as the telling of others' autobiographical stories as if they are one's own. In both pilot and online surveys, most undergraduates admit to borrowing personal stories from others or using details from others' experiences to embellish their own retellings. These behaviors appear primarily motivated by a desire to permanently incorporate others' experiences into one's own autobiographical record (appropriation), but other reasons include to temporarily create a more coherent or engaging conversational exchange (social connection), simplify conveying somebody else's interesting experience (convenience), or make oneself look good (status enhancement). A substantial percentage of respondents expressed uncertainty as to whether an autobiographical experience actually belonged to them or to someone else, and most respondents have confronted somebody over ownership of a particular story. Documenting memory borrowing is important as the behavior has potential consequences for the creation of false memories.
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    Two routes to the same place: learning from quick closed-book essays versus open-book essays
    (Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2021-01-01) Arnold, KM; Eliseev, ED; Stone, AR; McDaniel, MA; Marsh, EJ
    Knowing when and how to most effectively use writing as a learning tool requires understanding the cognitive processes driving learning. Writing is a generative activity that often requires students to elaborate upon and organise information. Here we examine what happens when a standard short writing task is (or is not) combined with a known mnemonic, retrieval practice. In two studies, we compared learning from writing short open-book versus closed-book essays. Despite closed-book essays being shorter and taking less time, students learned just as much as from writing longer and more time intensive open-book essays. These results differ from students’ own perceptions that they learned more from writing open-book essays. Analyses of the essays themselves suggested a trade-off in cognitive processes; closed-book essays required the retrieval of information but resulted in lower quality essays as judged by naïve readers. Implications for educational practice and possible roles for individual differences are discussed.