Older adults experience deficits in associative memory. However, age-related differences are reduced when information is consistent with prior knowledge (i.e., schematic support), suggesting that episodic and semantic memory are interrelated. It is unclear what role metacognitive processes play in schematic support. Prior knowledge may reduce encoding demands, but older adults may allocate cognitive resources to schema-consistent information because it is more meaningful. We examined metacognitive awareness of and control over associative information that was consistent or inconsistent with prior knowledge. In Experiment 1, participants self-paced their study of grocery items paired with either market prices or unusually high prices and were tested on the exact price of each item over four study-test lists with new items on each list. In Experiment 2, participants studied items for a fixed time but made judgments of learning (JOLs) at encoding. Older adults better remembered the prices of market-value items than overpriced items. In Experiment 1, younger and older adults studied overpriced items longer than market-priced items, consistent with a discrepancy reduction model of self-regulated learning, but study time did not relate to later recall accuracy, suggesting a labor-in-vain effect. In Experiment 2, participants gave higher JOLs to market-priced items than overpriced items and were generally metacognitively aware of the benefits of schematic support. Together, these results suggest that the benefits of schematic support may not be dependent on or influenced by metacognitive control processes, supporting the hypothesis that episodic memory may be less distinct from semantic memory in younger and older adults.

老年人在联想记忆方面存在缺陷。然而，当信息与先验知识（即图解支持）一致时，与年龄相关的差异就会减少，这表明情景记忆和语义记忆是相互关联的。目前尚不清楚元认知过程在图式支持中扮演什么角色。先验知识可能会减少编码需求，但老年人可能会将认知资源分配给模式一致的信息，因为它更有意义。我们检查了对与先前知识一致或不一致的关联信息的元认知意识和控制。在实验 1 中，参与者自主学习与市场价格或异常高价配对的杂货商品，并在四个研究测试列表中对每个项目的确切价格进行测试，每个列表上都有新项目。在实验 2 中，参与者在固定时间内学习项目，但在编码时做出学习判断 (JOL)。与高价商品相比，老年人更能记住市场价值商品的价格。在实验 1 中，年轻人和老年人研究定价过高的物品的时间比市场定价的物品长，这与自我调节学习的差异减少模型一致，但学习时间与后来的回忆准确性无关，这表明劳动是徒劳的。在实验 2 中，与定价过高的商品相比，参与者对市场定价商品的 JOL 更高，并且通常元认知上意识到图解支持的好处。总之，这些结果表明，图解支持的好处可能不依赖于元认知控制过程或不受其影响，