Authors: Kiyofumi Miyoshi, Ayumi Kuwahara, Jun Kawaguchi

Title: Comparing the confidence calculation rules for forced-choice recognition memory: A winner-takes-all rule wins

Journal(書誌情報): Journal of Memory and Language

doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2018.06.001

論文URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X18300548

Abstract: Using a new signal-detection-theory-based approach, Experiments 1 and 2 of this study were found to reveal that the internal confidence for two-alternative forced-choice (2-AFC) recognition memory is calculated in a winner-takes-all manner. The signal strength for one of a pair of stimuli exclusively determines confidence and the other piece of useful information is discarded. Similar winner-takes-all confidence calculation has been reported in different kinds of visual perception tasks, which, together with the present findings, confirms that it is a domain-general metacognitive heuristic. Furthermore, by using a less common 2-AFC recognition memory task to select a new stimulus, Experiment 3 elucidated the underlying mechanism of this confidence calculation heuristic. Previously, it had been assumed that the chosen stimulus’s signal strength selectively determines confidence and that the signal strength for the unchosen stimulus is disregarded (heuristic use of response-congruent evidence or post-decisional confirmation bias). However, the present study demonstrates that the strength of a stronger signal selectively determines confidence and that of a weaker signal is disregarded. That is, the winner in signal competition, not response selection, takes all in the construction of confidence.

Email: miyoshi80[at]gmail.com([at] を@に置き換えてください)