Confidence ratings increase response thresholds in decision making

Many mental processes are reactive - they are altered as a result of introspection and monitoring. It has been documented that soliciting trial-by-trial confidence ratings (CRs) reactively improves decision accuracy and lengthens response times (RTs), but the cognitive mechanisms underlying CR reactivity in decision-making remain unknown. The current study conducted two experiments and employed the drift-diffusion model (DDM) to explore why reporting confidence reactively alters the decision-making process. The results showed that CRs led to enhanced decision accuracy, longer RTs, and higher response thresholds. The findings are consistent with an increased conservatism hypothesis which asserts that soliciting CRs provokes feelings of uncertainty and makes individuals more cautious in their decision making.

Soliciting judgments of forgetting reactively enhances memory as well as making judgments of learning: Empirical and meta-analytic tests

Recent studies found that making judgments of learning (JOLs) can reactively facilitate memory, a phenomenon termed the reactivity effect of JOLs. The current study was designed to explore (1) whether making judgments of forgetting (JOFs) can also enhance memory and (2) whether there is any difference between the reactivity effects of JOFs and JOLs. Experiment 1 found that soliciting JOFs significantly enhanced retention of single words. Experiments 2 and 3 observed minimal difference in reactivity effects between JOFs and JOLs on learning of single words and word pairs. Finally, a meta-analysis was conducted to integrate results across studies to explore whether retention of items studied with JOLs differed from that of items studied with JOFs. The meta-analytic results showed minimal difference. Overall, the documented findings imply that (1) making JOFs reactively enhances memory, and (2) there is little difference in reactivity effects between JOFs and JOLs. These findings support the positive-reactivity theory to account for the reactivity effect.

Metacognition-related regions modulate the reactivity effect of confidence ratings on perceptual decision-making

Prompting confidence ratings following perceptual decision-making could significantly affect the decision-making per se, a phenomenon known as the reactivity effect. The current study aimed to explore the neural substrates underlying the reactivity effect by comparing behavioral and functional magnetic imaging data between when participants making decisions with prompted confidence ratings (DCR+) and when without providing confidence ratings (DCR-). The results showed that DCR+ was associated with longer decision response times (RTs) and higher accuracy than DCR-. The analysis of fMRI data revealed significantly increased activation in the DCR+ condition, relative to the DCR- condition, in multiple metacognition-related regions including the left supplementary motor area, left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral precuneus. Changed beta values (Beta_DCR+ minus Beta_DCR-) of these clusters were correlated with the changed decision RTs between the two conditions (ΔRT = RT_DCR+ - RT_DCR-). Psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed increased functional connectivity between the left supplementary motor area and the right inferior parietal lobe in the DCR+ condition than the DCR- condition. Further multiple regression analysis found that ΔRTs was significantly associated with activities in the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and supplementary motor area. Together, this study found that provide confidence ratings significantly changed online decision-making while activating multiple metacognition-related regions. The activity of metacognition-related regions may be a crucial part of the neural mechanisms underlying the reactivity effect of confidence ratings on perceptual decision-making.