ABSTRACT
Metamemory is knowledge about memory. It resembles constructs advanced by earlier theoretical traditions (Cavanaugh & Perlmutter, 1982), such as systematic introspection as defined by the “Würzburg School of Thought” (Ach, 1905). Selz (1913) made assumptions about the self-regulating processes of evaluation and selection that resemble processes central to contemporary metacognitive theory. Despite reservations about introspective data throughout the 20th century (e.g., Lyons, 1986), the potential importance of modern research on metacognition was anticipated enthusiastically by some experimental psychologists, including Tulving and Madigan (1970):
Why not start looking for ways of experimentally studying and incorporating into theories and models of memory one of the truly unique characteristics of human memory: its knowledge of its own knowledge…. We cannot help but feel that if there is ever going to be a genuine breakthrough in the psychological study of memory … it will, among other things, relate the knowledge stored in the individual’s memory to his knowledge of that knowledge. (p. 477)
