On April 4, 2022, I got to present data from the Working Memory & Language Lab and from my Undergraduate Research Grant at the One Boys Town Research Conference. Together, we analyzed responses from young and older adult participants regarding their use of strategies during memory tasks. Our findings emphasize the importance of utilizing multiple methods of collecting participants' strategy use during a task, namely through open-ended responses and endorsement questionnaires.
Assessing strategy use during memory tasks provides insight into how people approach a task, however, typical assessment methods only capture the small picture. By allowing people to freely report strategies through open-ended questions and endorse strategies by providing a questionnaire, we start to see a fuller picture of strategy use on a given task. Moving forward, more study protocols should use both methods of strategy assessment when attempting to capture strategy reliance during a task.
What strategies do you use when you're trying to remember? Knowing may be more important than you think!