How metastrategic considerations influence the selection of frequency estimation strategies

Prior research indicates that enumeration-based frequency estimation strategies become increasingly common as memory for relevant event instances improves and that moderate levels of context memory are associated with moderate rates of enumeration [Brown, N. R. (1995). Estimation strategies and the judgment of event frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 1539–1553; Brown, N. R. (1997). Context memory and the selection of frequency estimation strategies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23, 898–914]. Two experiments, one an RT study, the second a protocol study, were conducted to determine what happens to when context memory is very good. Both compared an exemplar-generation condition to a non-generation condition. As expected, generation improved context memory and reduced estimation bias. Importantly, Experiment-1 RTs increased with frequency at the same rate in both conditions, which implied that generation had no effect on enumeration. Experiment-2 protocols provided converging evidence for this conclusion as enumeration rates were equal across conditions. These findings are consistent with a metastrategic account of strategy selection; on this view, people mix enumerated and non-enumerated responses in a way that optimizes performance at the task level rather than the trial level.