Retrospective Confidence Judgments Research Articles

Metamemory and executive function mediate the age-related decline in memory.

Although the effect of aging on episodic memory is relatively well studied, little is known about how aging influences metamemory. In addition, while executive function (EF) is known to mediate the age-related decline in episodic memory, the role of metamemory in aging-related memory differences beyond EF remains unknown. This study aimed to elucidate the effect of aging on metamemory and to clarify the role of metamemory in the age-related decline in memory. One hundred and four adults aged 18-79 years (50 M, 54 F) performed several EF tasks, as well as a face-scene paired-associate learning task that required them to make judgments of learning, feeling-of-knowing judgments, and retrospective confidence judgments. Aging was significantly associated with poor metamemory accuracy and increased confidence across metamemory judgment types, even after controlling for EF and memory performance. A parallel mediation analysis indicated that both confidence of learning and EF performance had significant partial mediation effects on the relationship between aging and memory, albeit in different ways. Specifically, poor EF explained the age-related decline in memory, whereas increased confidence of learning served to compensate for this memory decline. Aging is associated with general changes (i.e., poor inferences from cues) rather than specific changes (i.e., declined activation or utilization of certain cues) in metamemory monitoring. Also, changes in confidence of learning and in EF ability contribute to the preservation and decline of memory during aging, respectively. Therefore, boosting confidence during encoding and enhancing EF skills might be complementary memory intervention strategies for older adults.

21 Patterns of Neural Activation Associated with Judgments of Learning and Retrospective Confidence Judgments in Individuals with TBI

Objective:Metacognition is defined as the ability to observe, monitor, and make judgments about one’s own cognitive status. Judgments of learning (JOLs) and retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) are two elements of metacognition related to memory, or metamemory. JOLs refer to one’s assumptions of their memory performance prior to completing a memory task, while RCJs describe one’s subjective assessment of their memory performance after they have completed the task. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is known to negatively impact general metacognitive functioning. However, the nuanced effects of TBI on constituent metacognitive subprocesses like JOLs and RCJs remain unclear. This study aimed to characterize patterns of brain activity that occur when individuals with TBI render JOLs and RCJs during a meta-memory task. Differences between JOL- and RCJ-related patterns of activation were also explored.Participants and Methods:20 participants with moderate-to-severe TBI completed a metacognition task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were first exposed to target slides with a set of polygons placed in specific locations, then asked to identify the target slides within a set of distractors. Before identifying the target slides, participants rated how well they believed they would remember the polygons’ shape and location (JOL). After answering, they rated how confident they were that the answer they provided was correct (RCJ). First-level time series analyses of fMRI data were conducted for each participant using FSL FEAT. Higher-level random effects modeling was then performed to assess average activation across all participants. Finally, contrasts were applied to examine and compare JOL- and RCJ-specific patterns of activation.Results:JOLs were associated with activation of the left frontal gyri, bilateral anterior cingulate, left insula, and right putamen (p < 0.01). RCJs were associated with activation of the bilateral frontal gyri, bilateral posterior and anterior cingulate, left insula, right putamen, and left thalamus (p < 0.01). Compared to RCJs, JOLs demonstrated greater left insula activation (p < 0.01). Compared to JOLs, RCJs demonstrated greater activation of the left superior frontal gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, and bilateral anterior cingulate (p < 0.01).Conclusions:The areas of activation found in this study were consistent with structures previously identified in the broader metacognition literature. Overall, RCJs produced activity in a greater number of regions that was more bilaterally distributed compared to JOLs. Moreover, several regions that were active during both metacognitive subprocesses tended to be even more active during RCJs. A hypothesis for this observation suggests that, unlike JOLs, the additional involvement of reflecting on one’s immediate memory of completing the task during RCJs may require greater recruitment of resources compared to JOLs. Importantly, these findings suggest that, while different metacognitive subprocesses may recruit similar brain circuitry, some subprocesses may require more potent and widespread activation of this circuitry than others. As such, subprocesses with greater activational needs and complexity, such as RCJs, may be more susceptible to damage caused by TBI. Future research should aim to compare patterns of activation associated with certain metacognitive subprocesses between survivors of TBI and healthy controls.

The many facets of metacognition: comparing multiple measures of metacognition in healthy individuals

Metacognition is important for successful goal-directed behavior. It consists of two main elements: metacognitive knowledge and online awareness. Online awareness consists of monitoring and self-regulation. Metacognitive sensitivity is the extent to which someone can accurately distinguish their own correct from incorrect responses and is an important aspect of monitoring of behavior. Research into the interplay between these elements is currently lacking. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to explore how these different elements of metacognition can predict metacognitive sensitivity. Healthy participants filled out the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory with two subscales that serve as measures of metacognitive knowledge. Next, as measures of online awareness, they performed a memory task that was adapted to include trial-by-trial confidence judgments, and made pro- and retrospective confidence judgments about their performance on this task. The 128 included participants show a large variability in scores on all the different metacognitive measures. Metacognitive sensitivity was predicted by higher prospective discrepancy scores and lower retrospective discrepancy scores but not by metacognitive knowledge. The current study confirms that metacognition is a multidimensional concept consisting of different elements. Online measures seem to be associated with each other, but not so much with offline measures. The current framework can be used to further investigate the associations between different elements of metacognition within persons.

Comparing event-related potentials of retrospective and prospective metacognitive judgments during episodic and semantic memory

It is unclear whether metacognitive judgments are made on the basis of domain-generality or domain-specificity. In the current study, we compared both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) correlates of retrospective (retrospective confidence judgments: RCJs), and prospective (feeling of knowing: FOK) metacognitive judgments during episodic and semantic memory tasks in 82 participants. Behavioral results indicated that FOK judgments reflect a domain-specific process, while RCJ reflect a domain-general process. RCJ and FOK judgments produced similar ERP waveforms within the memory tasks, but with different temporal dynamics; thus supporting the hypothesis that retrospective and prospective metacognitive judgments are distinct processes. Our ERP results also suggest that metacognitive judgments are linked to distributed neural substrates, rather than purely frontal lobe functioning. Furthermore, the role of intra-subject and inter-subject differences in metacognitive judgments across and within the memory tasks are highlighted.

Investigating Academic Performance Using an AR-based Learning Environment with Retrospective Confidence Judgments

Augmented reality (AR) is being used extensively in education in order to improve academic performance. However, everyone might have a different learning capability when they are exposed to an AR environment. Retrospective confidence judgment (RCJ) is a good metacognitive monitoring tool used in a computer-based learning system to make restudy decisions. In this study, we created an AR-based learning environment with RCJ to investigate academic performance. The Microsoft HoloLens provided a realistic AR environment for students to learn engineering content. Group one was the control group learning in class, and group two was learning AR-based content. Group two was divided into two subgroups, the academic performance of within groups was compared with RCJs and without RCJs. The study revealed the advantages of using an AR learn-ing environment to prompt students’ academic performance in the sagittal plane (U = 680, p < 0.05). The findings of this research advance our understanding of human-computer interactions between students and the learning contents in an AR environment with RCJs. Besides, this research provides new guidelines on how to generate more effective engineering learning content in an AR learning environment.

The role of metacognitive uncertainty in the delayed retrieval shift of older adults

ABSTRACT Strategic choice behavior of older adults in many skill acquisition tasks can be characterized as a delayed and/or incomplete shift to a more efficient retrieval-based strategy, even when older adults possess the requisite knowledge to use it successfully. The noun-pair lookup task (NPLT) requires verification of whether a centrally presented word pair matches one of a set of pairs displayed at the top of the screen. Because the pairings do not change, verification can be made from memory as the associations are learned. This study examines the role of metacognitive uncertainty in explaining older adults’ delayed retrieval shift in the NPLT. Older and younger adults participated in a NPLT with previously learned items and new items. For each trial, the look-up table was shown only if the scanning strategy was selected. Some participants were given a precue informing whether the item had been previously learned. Retrieval strategy choice was low for older adults but precueing increased its frequency. Older adults’ retrieval choices had minimal costs on NPLT accuracy, suggesting that the delayed retrieval shift can be exacerbated by metacognitive uncertainty that was reduced by precueing. The role of metacognitive uncertainty in older adults’ retrieval avoidance was supported by a robust item-level regression effect of retrospective confidence judgments during prelearning tests and later NPLT retrieval strategy choices for older adults.

Math anxiety relates positively to metacognitive insight into mathematical decision making.

The current study reports a pre-registered investigation into the interrelations between mathematics anxiety, metacognition and mathematical decision-making. Although this question has already received some attention in previous work, reliance on self-report measures of metacognition has hindered its interpretation. Here, a novel experimental mathematical decision-making task was used in which participants solved mathematical assignments of varying difficulty, and expressed their level of confidence in the accuracy of their decision both prospectively and retrospectively. Mathematics anxiety was measured using a standardized questionnaire. Both prospective and retrospective confidence judgments predicted unique variation in accuracy; however, the explanatory effect of prospective confidence disappeared after taking task difficulty into account. This suggests that prospective, but not retrospective, confidence is largely based on easily available cues indicative of performance. Results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that individual differences in mathematics anxiety were negatively related to the overall level of confidence (both prospectively and retrospectively), and positively related to metacognitive efficiency (only prospectively). Having insight in these interrelationships is important in the context of remediating mathematics anxiety, which might in turn be useful with regard to the worldwide need for more workers with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).

Retrospective confidence judgments: Meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.

Confidence in our retrieved memories, that is, retrospective confidence, is a metamemory process we perform daily. There is an abundance of applied research focusing on the metamemory judgments and very diverse studies including a wide range of clinical populations. However, the neural correlates that support its functioning are not well defined impeding the implementation of noninvasive neuromodulatory clinical interventions. To address the neural basis of metamemory judgments, we ran a meta‐analysis, where we used the activation likelihood estimation method on the 19 eligible functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. The main analysis of retrospective confidence revealed concordant bilateral activation in the parahippocampal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and right amygdala. We also run an analysis between the two extreme levels of confidence, namely, high and low. This additional analysis was exploratory, since the minimum amount of articles reporting these two levels was not reached. Activations for the exploratory high > low confidence subtraction analysis were the same as observed in the main analysis on retrospective confidence, whereas the exploratory low > high subtraction showed distinctive activations of the right precuneus. The involvement of the right precuneus emphasizes its role in the evaluation of low confidence memories, as suggested by previous studies. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of the specific brain structures involved in confidence evaluations. Better understanding of the neural basis of metamemory might eventually lead to designing more precise neuromodulatory interventions, significantly improving treatment of patients suffering from metamemory problems.

Modulation of Metacognitive Confidence Judgments Through Provision of Performance Feedback in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) may result in metacognitive impairments. Enhancing memory in healthy adults can improve metacognitive accuracy, but it is unclear whether such interventions apply to individuals with TBI. This study examined the effects of manipulating target memory experiences on metacognitive accuracy in TBI. Fourteen community-dwelling adults with TBI and 17 healthy controls. Memory was manipulated through performance feedback (monetary, nonmonetary, or none) presented during a word-pair learning task. Recognition of the word pairs was assessed, and metacognition was evaluated by retrospective confidence judgments. Both groups demonstrated greater recognition performance for items learned with nonmonetary feedback. Healthy individuals demonstrated improved metacognitive accuracy for items learned with nonmonetary feedback, but this effect was not seen in individuals with TBI. A notable (but statistically nonsignificant) effect was observed whereby adults with TBI overestimated performance for items learned with monetary feedback compared with other feedback conditions. Provision of feedback during learning enhances recognition performance. However, target memory experiences may be utilized differently after injury to facilitate confidence judgments. In addition, the type of feedback provided may have different effects on metacognitive accuracy. These results have implications for rehabilitative efforts in the area of memory and metacognition after injury.

Are age differences in recognition-based retrieval monitoring an epiphenomenon of age differences in memory?

Older adults often demonstrate a monitoring deficit by producing more high-confidence memory errors on recognition memory tests. To eliminate lower memory performance by older adults (OA) as a candidate explanation, we studied how distinctive encoding enhances the retrieval-monitoring accuracy in older adults and younger adults (YA) under different delays (2-day delay for OA, 7-day delay for YA). Individuals viewed items consisting of four randomly selected exemplars (e.g., SALMON, BASS, PERCH, and SHARK) from a taxonomic category (e.g., FISH), one being designated as the to-be-remembered target. Participants were randomly assigned to two encoding conditions: Shared (generate a shared feature of all exemplars, e.g., GILLS) or Distinctive (generate a distinctive feature of the designated target). We collected retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) after a five-alternative forced-choice (5AFC) recognition test, with the lures being either previously presented (old) exemplars or new category exemplars. Recall and recognition memory were better with distinctive encoding, with shared feature generation producing more high-confidence false alarms (HCFAs). Distinctive encoding dramatically reduced HCFAs and improved RCJ resolution. Comparison of OA with 2-day delay YA revealed age differences in HCFA consistent with previous studies. As important, age differences in memory for OA and 7-day delay YA were minimized, eliminating age deficits in HCFAs. Matching OAs to a subset of 7-day delay YAs on recognition memory produced additional evidence favoring the null hypothesis of age-equivalence in HCFAs. The results therefore indicated that age differences in recognition-based retrieval monitoring in a forced-choice recognition test are an epiphenomenon of age differences in memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of feedback valence and source on perception and metacognition: An fMRI investigation

ABSTRACT Receiving feedback from our environment that informs us about the outcomes of our actions helps us assess our abilities (e.g., metacognition) and to flexibly adapt our behavior, consequently increasing our chances of success. However, a detailed examination of the effect of feedback on the brain activation during perceptual and confidence judgments as well as the interrelations between perceptual accuracy, prospective and retrospective confidence remains unclear. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural response to feedback valence and source in visual contrast discrimination together with prospective confidence judgments at the beginning of each block and retrospective confidence judgments after every decision. Positive feedback was associated with higher activation (or lower deactivation depending on the area) in areas previously involved in attention, performance monitoring and visual regions during the perceptual judgment than during the confidence judgment. Changes in prospective confidence were positively related to changes in perceptual accuracy as well as to the corresponding retrospective confidence. Thus, feedback information impacted multiple, qualitatively different brain processing states, and we also revealed the dynamic interplay between prospective, perceptual accuracy and retrospective self-assessment.

What makes creative advertisements memorable? The role of insight.

Sudden insight is often observed during creative problem solving and studies have suggested that advertisements can likewise evoke an insight experience. To date, however, there is limited empirical evidence on whether advertisements can trigger ideational insight, and, if so, whether such insight plays a role in advertising memorability. This study aimed to explore the insight experience evoked by advertisements and to examine the role of such experimentally-induced insight in predicted memory and metamemory performance. Participants viewed standardized advertising images sequentially, with each image presentation being followed immediately by a second presentation either with or without a brief description of the advertising idea. Next, participants were asked to recall the three most impressive advertisements. Finally, participants were randomly divided to complete either immediate (5min later) or delayed (3days later) recognition tests and to provide retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs). Recall of creative advertisements was better than standard advertisements and most of them evoked insight. In addition, recognition accuracy was greater for creative advertisements relative to standard advertisements and metamemory performance as elicited through RCJs was enhanced. Further analyses confirmed the documented importance of insight for memory consolidation. The findings suggest that insight makes advertisements more memorable, especially those that are creative.

Effects of induced levels of prior knowledge on monitoring accuracy and performance when learning from self-regulated problem solving.

Both accurate monitoring and adequate control are crucial for effective self-regulation when learning from problem-solving tasks. Prior research has shown that self-regulated learning is especially harmful for low prior knowledge students, given their difficulties with accurate monitoring and control decisions. Although many studies have indicated that prior knowledge facilitates monitoring accuracy, none of these studies experimentally manipulated students’ prior knowledge. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether experimentally induced levels of prior knowledge affect the accuracy of metacognitive judgments (i.e., ease-of-learning judgments [EOLs], and retrospective confidence judgments [RCJs]) when learning from problem-solving tasks, and whether this in turn moderates the effect of learner control on performance. To manipulate prior knowledge, we compared conditions in which undergraduate students (N = 165) watched either a video about Mendel’s biography (low prior knowledge) or a video about Mendel’s laws of heredity (high prior knowledge). After that, we presented students with a set of problem-solving tasks and manipulated the type of learner control between conditions (i.e., full control vs. restricted control over the selection of tasks). Results indicated that students with high induced prior knowledge were more accurate in their EOLs and RCJs, and achieved higher performance than students with low prior knowledge. However, monitoring accuracy did not moderate the effects of different types of learner control on performance, even though students used their RCJs as a basis for the task selections. These results suggest that monitoring accuracy is a prerequisite for successful self-regulated problem solving, but it is not sufficient. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Postdecisional Processing Delays in Metacognitive Monitoring After Traumatic Brain Injury.

To document the process by which metacognitive judgments ("online" monitoring of one's own cognitive performance during task completion) are made after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Sixteen community-dwelling adults with moderate to severe TBI and 16 matched healthy controls. Prospective, cross-sectional design. Metacognitive retrospective confidence judgments and reaction times were collected as participants performed a metamemory task. Adults with TBI did not differ from healthy peers in metacognitive accuracy; however, they took significantly longer to make retrospective confidence judgments. Retrospective confidence judgment reaction times were not consistently correlated to measures of processing speed in either sample. Adults with TBI engage in different postdecisional processes to make metacognitive judgments compared with healthy controls. Findings suggest that reaction times may be an important dimension of metacognition to assess clinically after TBI.

No evidence that alcohol intoxication impairs judgments of learning in face recognition

SummaryAlcohol use is frequently involved in crime, making it crucial to understand the role of alcohol in facial recognition to maximize correct perpetrator identifications. Although the majority of the alcohol and face recognition research has investigated recognition with retrospective confidence judgments, we examined the effects of alcohol intoxication on face recognition with prospective metacognitive judgments. Participants (N = 54 university students without a history of hazardous alcohol/substance use) consumed either alcohol (mean breath alcohol concentration of 0.06 at pretest and 0.07 at post‐test) or a non‐alcoholic placebo drink. Participants then studied unfamiliar male and female faces and made judgments of learning (JOLs) for each face (i.e., predicted the likelihood of recognizing that face on a future memory test). After a brief distractor task, participants completed an old–new recognition test on which they attempted to distinguish the studied faces from new faces. It was found that the alcohol manipulation had minimal effect on face recognition performance or judgments of learning. Our results suggest that theory‐based cues about the effects of alcohol might play a greater role in retrospective judgments than prospective judgments. Although not a primary focus of the study, face recognition was better for male faces than female faces, and this occurred for both female and male participants. Limitations and implications of the research are discussed.

Prefrontal gray matter volume predicts metacognitive accuracy following traumatic brain injury.

To examine metacognitive ability (MC) following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) using an empirical assessment approach and to determine the relationship between alterations in gray matter volume (GMV) and MC. A sample of 62 individuals (TBI n = 34; healthy control [HC] n = 28) were included in the study. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological data were collected for all participants during the same visit. MC was quantified using an approach borrowed from signal detection theory (Type II area under the receiver operating characteristic curve calculation) to evaluate judgments during a modified version of the 3rd edition of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale's Matrix Reasoning subtest where half of the items were presented randomly and half were presented in the order of increasing difficulty. Retrospective confidence judgments were collected on an item-by-item basis. Brain volumetric analyses were conducted using FreeSurfer software. Analyses of the modified Matrix Reasoning task data demonstrated that HCs significantly outperformed TBIs (ordered: d = .63; random: d = .58). There was a significant difference between groups for MC for the randomly presented stimuli (d = .54) but not the ordered stimuli. There was an association between GMV and MC in the TBI group between the right orbital region and MC (R2 = .11). In the HC group, there were associations between the left posterior (R2 = .17), left orbital (R2 = .29), and left dorsolateral (R2 = .21) regions and MC. These results are consistent with those of previous research on MC in the cognitive neurosciences, but this study demonstrates that injury may moderate the regional contributions to MC. (PsycINFO Database Record

Do metacognitive judgments alter memory performance beyond the benefits of retrieval practice? A comment on and replication attempt of Dougherty, Scheck, Nelson, and Narens (2005).

A central question in the metacognitive literature concerns whether the act of making a metacognitive judgment alters one's memory for the information about which the judgment was made. Dougherty, Scheck, Nelson, and Narens (2005, Memory & Cognition, 33(6), 1096-1115) attempted to address this question by having participants make either retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs; i.e., evaluations of past retrieval success), judgments of learning (JOLs; i.e., predictions of future retrieval success), or no explicit judgments. When comparing final retrieval accuracy they found that accuracy was greater for items where participants had made JOLs compared with items that received RCJs or no judgment, suggesting that simply making a JOL can improve later memory performance. The present article presents results from four separate replication attempts that fail to duplicate this finding. Combined results provide compelling evidence that making a metacognitive judgment, regardless of the type, has no impact on later memory performance above and beyond retrieval practice.

The effect of metacognitive monitoring feedback on performance in a computer-based training simulation

This laboratory experiment was designed to study the effect of metacognitive monitoring feedback on performance in a computer-based training simulation. According to prior research on metacognition, the accurate checking of learning is a critical part of improving the quality of human performance. However, only rarely have researchers studied the learning effects of the accurate checking of retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) during a computer-based military training simulation. In this study, we provided participants feedback screens after they had completed a warning task and identification task in a radar monitoring simulation. There were two groups in this experiment. One group (group A) viewed the feedback screens with the flight path of all target aircraft and the triangular graphs of both RCJ scores and human performance together. The other group (group B) only watched the feedback screens with the flight path of all target aircraft. There was no significant difference in performance improvement between groups A and B for the warning task (Day 1: group A – 0.347, group B – 0.305; Day 2: group A – 0.488, group B – 0.413). However, the identification task yielded a significant difference in performance improvement between these groups (Day 1: group A – 0.174, group B – 0.1555; Day 2: group A – 0.324, group B – 0.199). The results show that debiasing self-judgment of the identification task produces a positive training effect on learners. The findings of this study will be beneficial for designing an advanced instructional strategy in a simulation-based training environment.

Alcohol Intoxication and Metamemory: Little Evidence that Moderate Intoxication Impairs Metacognitive Monitoring Processes

SummaryThere is minimal research on metacognition in alcohol‐intoxicated participants. Study 1 examined metacognition across sober, intoxicated, and placebo groups, with the intoxicated group's breath alcohol concentration reaching 0.074 g/210 L on average immediately prior to the metacognition task. Participants answered cued recall general knowledge questions and provided confidence ratings and feeling‐of‐knowing judgments. They then completed a recognition (i.e., multiple choice) version of the same task, indicating an answer and a confidence rating for each question. Findings suggest that metacognitive accuracy generally did not vary across intoxication levels, although the control group's retrospective confidence judgments better discriminated between accurate and inaccurate responses than the alcohol groups in the recognition task. Study 2 surveyed academic psychologists about their expectations regarding the relation between alcohol and metacognition. Study 1's results were counter to their expectations, as respondents generally predicted a relation would be present. We discuss the implications for alcohol and memory.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Making Retrospective Confidence Judgments Improves Learners’ Ability to Decide What Not to Study

Predictions about future retrieval success, known as judgments of learning (JOLs), are often viewed as important for effective control over learning. However, much less is known about how retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs), evaluations of past retrieval success, may affect control over learning. We compared participants’ ability to identify items that would benefit from additional study after making either a JOL or an RCJ. Participants completed a cued-recall task in which they made a metacognitive judgment after an initial recall attempt and before making a restudy decision. Participants who made RCJs prior to their restudy decisions were more accurate at identifying items in need of being restudied, relative to participants who made JOLs. The results indicate that having participants assess their confidence in past retrieval success can nudge them toward better utilizing of valid information when deciding which items are in need of further study.