Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1942-1951 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Early online date | 21 Jul 2016 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2016 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
One important aspect of metacognition is the ability to accurately evaluate one's performance. People vary widely in their metacognitive ability and in general are too confident when evaluating their performance. This often leads to poor decision making with potentially disastrous consequences. To further our understanding of the neural underpinnings of these processes, this fMRI study investigated inter-individual differences in metacognitive ability and effects of trial-by-trial variation in subjective feelings of confidence when making metacognitive assessments. Participants (N=308) evaluated their performance in a high-level social and cognitive reasoning task. The results showed that higher metacognitive accuracy was associated with a decrease in activation in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, an area previously linked to metacognition on perception and memory. Moreover, the feeling of confidence about one's choices was associated with an increase of activation in reward, memory and motor related areas including bilateral striatum and hippocampus, while less confidence was associated with activation in areas linked with negative affect and uncertainty, including dorsomedial prefrontal and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex. This might indicate that positive affect is related to higher confidence thereby biasing metacognitive decisions towards overconfidence. In support, behavioural analyses revealed that increased confidence was associated with lower metacognitive accuracy.
Keywords
- Confidence, Decision making, FMRI, Metacognition, Social neuroscience
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychology(all)
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience(all)
- Cognitive Neuroscience
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In: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol. 11, No. 12, 12.2016, p. 1942-1951.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural correlates of metacognitive ability and of feeling confident
T2 - A large-scale fMRI study
AU - Molenberghs, Pascal
AU - Trautwein, Fynn Mathis
AU - Böckler, Anne
AU - Singer, Tania
AU - Kanske, Philipp
N1 - Funding Information: T.S. as principal investigator, received funding for the ReSource Project from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/20072013/ ERC grant agreement no. 205557) and from the Max Planck Society. P.M. was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Early Career Research Award (DE130100120), Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (100458), and an ARC Discovery Grant (DP130100559).
PY - 2016/12
Y1 - 2016/12
N2 - One important aspect of metacognition is the ability to accurately evaluate one's performance. People vary widely in their metacognitive ability and in general are too confident when evaluating their performance. This often leads to poor decision making with potentially disastrous consequences. To further our understanding of the neural underpinnings of these processes, this fMRI study investigated inter-individual differences in metacognitive ability and effects of trial-by-trial variation in subjective feelings of confidence when making metacognitive assessments. Participants (N=308) evaluated their performance in a high-level social and cognitive reasoning task. The results showed that higher metacognitive accuracy was associated with a decrease in activation in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, an area previously linked to metacognition on perception and memory. Moreover, the feeling of confidence about one's choices was associated with an increase of activation in reward, memory and motor related areas including bilateral striatum and hippocampus, while less confidence was associated with activation in areas linked with negative affect and uncertainty, including dorsomedial prefrontal and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex. This might indicate that positive affect is related to higher confidence thereby biasing metacognitive decisions towards overconfidence. In support, behavioural analyses revealed that increased confidence was associated with lower metacognitive accuracy.
AB - One important aspect of metacognition is the ability to accurately evaluate one's performance. People vary widely in their metacognitive ability and in general are too confident when evaluating their performance. This often leads to poor decision making with potentially disastrous consequences. To further our understanding of the neural underpinnings of these processes, this fMRI study investigated inter-individual differences in metacognitive ability and effects of trial-by-trial variation in subjective feelings of confidence when making metacognitive assessments. Participants (N=308) evaluated their performance in a high-level social and cognitive reasoning task. The results showed that higher metacognitive accuracy was associated with a decrease in activation in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, an area previously linked to metacognition on perception and memory. Moreover, the feeling of confidence about one's choices was associated with an increase of activation in reward, memory and motor related areas including bilateral striatum and hippocampus, while less confidence was associated with activation in areas linked with negative affect and uncertainty, including dorsomedial prefrontal and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex. This might indicate that positive affect is related to higher confidence thereby biasing metacognitive decisions towards overconfidence. In support, behavioural analyses revealed that increased confidence was associated with lower metacognitive accuracy.
KW - Confidence
KW - Decision making
KW - FMRI
KW - Metacognition
KW - Social neuroscience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013114858&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/scan/nsw093
DO - 10.1093/scan/nsw093
M3 - Article
C2 - 27445213
AN - SCOPUS:85013114858
VL - 11
SP - 1942
EP - 1951
JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
SN - 1749-5016
IS - 12
ER -