Metacognitive unawareness of feedback influences future memory prediction but not postdiction

Feedback helps facilitate learning but impairs future prediction. Previous studies have revealed that learners appreciate feedback correcting misinformation less when they receive feedback for their mistakes than in tests without feedback. These studies have noted that judgment after feedback relies on memory for the past test (MPT). In contrast, interference-perseveration theory has indicated that immediate feedback following incorrect answers leads to proactive interference that impedes the acquisition of feedback information. In addition, the current study proposes that this proactive interference influences learners' judgments when making future predictions. In Experiment 1, we instructed learners to judge their ability to predict feedback based on the global judgment of learning (GJOL), whereas in Experiment 2, we asked learners to delay the global judgment of learning (delayed GJOL) and thus not to base that judgment on the recent test. However, in both Experiments 1 and 2, learners' predictions regarding their performance in the feedback condition to be lower than their actual memory performance and did not appreciate the benefits of such feedback. However, learners can restore their awareness of their actual memory performance and thus of the benefits of the feedback after taking a true final test. This finding indicates that learners overcome proactive interference because they might forget their mistakes when making postdictions after taking the final test and might thus subjectively be aware of the fact that the feedback they receive facilitates their learning. The general discussion section presents possible reasons for these findings and highlights the theoretical contributions made by this study.