# A Review of Judgments of Learning and Executive Functions in Spaced Learning: The Enemy of Spacing?

## TL;DR

This paper explores how spacing learning improves memory but is affected by biases in learning judgments and executive functions.

## Contribution

It synthesizes judgments of learning and executive functions to reveal new mechanisms in spaced learning.

## Key findings

- Delayed JOLs and JOL reactivity affect memory performance in spaced learning.
- Executive functions like inhibition control and cognitive flexibility are linked to spaced learning outcomes.
- Theory of mind is an understudied factor that could reshape understanding of spacing.

## Abstract

The benefit of the spacing effect is inherently hindered by perception bias in making judgments of learning (JOLs), but more insights might be found in the context of executive functions (EF), where it correlates with metacognitive strategies and cognitive loads. Thus, this article attempts to address the dilemma of the spacing effect by synthesizing both existing JOL and EF perspectives. This paper yields various mechanisms related to memory performance in spaced learning: delayed JOLs, JOL reactivity, overt retrieval, inhibition control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. All of these factors associate with the theory of mind, an important yet understudied social-cognitive skill in spaced learning which could shift our ways of thinking about spacing.