Verbal Learning · Metamemory Calibration

Echo List

Learn a 15-word list across five passes, predict your recall before each attempt, and watch your learning curve — and your calibration — take shape.

How it works

You'll see the same 15 words five times, one word at a time. After each pass, you'll first predict how many words you'll recall (a judgment of learning), then type every word you remember, in any order.

After the fifth trial, a short arithmetic distractor task creates a delay. Then comes one final surprise-free recall — no re-study.

At the end you'll see two curves: what you predicted and what you actually did. The gap between them is where metacognition lives (Nelson & Narens, 1990).

Distractor delay length

Longer delays give a truer picture of retention; shorter fits a class period.

Delay: 1 minute 3 minutes 5 minutes

Begin Trial 1

Not a normed instrument. Echo List is a classroom analogue inspired by list-learning paradigms (e.g., Rey AVLT). It is a tool for making learning and metamemory visible and discussable — not for diagnosis or clinical interpretation.

Trial 1 — Watch the words

Each word appears for two seconds. Just read and remember — no writing yet.

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Prediction

Before you recall: how many of the 15 words do you think you'll remember right now?

7 / 15

Lock in prediction

Recall

Type each word you remember and press Enter. Any order. Spelling close counts.

Add

I'm done — score this trial

Trial 1 result

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You predicted

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You recalled

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Calibration gap

Continue

Distractor task

Solve these while the delay runs. This keeps the words out of rehearsal — that's the point.

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Solved: 0

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Your learning curve — and your calibration

Actual recall Predicted (JOL)

Shaded band = the gap between what you thought and what happened.

Trial-by-trial

Trial	Predicted	Actual	Gap	Intrusions

Reading your data (Nelson & Narens, 1990)

Talk it through

• Did your predictions track your learning trial to trial (good relative accuracy), even if the numbers were off (absolute accuracy)?
• What monitoring cues were you using — fluency of the words during study, ease of the last recall, a gut feeling?
• What control decisions would better predictions let you make — when to stop studying, what to restudy, which strategy to switch to?
• Which words never made it in? Were they early, middle, or late in the list (primacy/recency)?
• How does your delayed recall compare to Trial 5 — what does forgetting look like for you?

Print / save results Start over

Not a normed instrument. Use these numbers as conversation material about your own learning, not as scores comparable to anyone else's.