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Poster Session A: Tuesday, August 12, 1:30 – 4:30 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Metacognitive insight into decision caution

Yvonne F. Visser¹, Hanne Daenen, Peter Murphy², Kobe Desender¹; ¹KU Leuven, ²National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Presenter: Yvonne F. Visser

Perceptual decisions are accompanied by metacognitive experiences, such as the sense of confidence, that closely follows the speed and accuracy of each decision. Confidence can inform a general sense of performance to facilitate strategic adaptation of decision-making. Metacognitive insight into specific latent decision process parameters, however, could improve such adaptation, because it would allow decision-makers to pinpoint the source of errors and adapt accordingly. Here, we assessed insight into one key parameter generally thought to be under strategic control, the decision threshold. Participants decided on the direction of a random dot motion (RDM) stimulus in two conditions (cautious versus impulsive instructions). After each decision, they rated their sense of caution. As expected, decisions were faster and less accurate in the impulsive than in the cautious condition, and metacognitive ratings of caution were sensitive to these conditions. Modeling indicated that caution ratings reflect genuine insight into the state of the decision boundary, as opposed to other latent parameters or simply tracking response times. A hierarchical DDM will be used to asses this relationship on a single-trial basis.

Topic Area: Predictive Processing & Cognitive Control

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF