Signal Detection Analyses of the Relation of Prospective and Retrospective Metacognitive Judgments

Authors

Ali PournaghdaliFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Cognitive Neuroscience

First Advisor's Name

Bennett Schwartz

First Advisor's Committee Title

Co-committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Fabian Soto

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Co-committee chair

Third Advisor's Name

George Buzzell

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Sang Hong

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fifth Advisor's Name

Jorge Riera Diaz

Fifth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

metacognition, tip-of-the-tongue, feeling-of-knowing, confidence, general recognition theory, sensitivity vs. metacognition curve

Date of Defense

3-8-2022

Abstract

Tip-of-the-tongue states (TOT) and feeling-of-knowing judgments (FOK) are metacognitive experiences about the possibility of future retrieval of information when recall fails. Studies show that experiencing a TOT or a high FOK increases the possibility of correct retrieval of missing information, which demonstrates metacognitive sensitivity. However, evidence for metacognitive sensitivity of TOT and FOK mainly derives from measures that conflate metacognitive sensitivity with metacognitive bias. Moreover, no study has evaluated the influence of TOT and FOK judgments on the unbiased metacognitive sensitivity of other metacognitive experiences and judgments, in this case, confidence judgments.

In this study, I used general recognition theory (GRT) to provide a bias-free assessment of metacognitive sensitivity for TOT and FOK and to evaluate the influence of TOT and FOK on the metacognitive sensitivity of confidence judgments. In two experiments, I asked participants to perform a memory recall task. If recall failed, participants provided metacognitive judgments of TOT and FOK, memory recognition responses, and metacognitive judgements of confidence on those recognition responses. After collecting the behavioral data, I fit two different GRT models to the data to assess metacognitive sensitivity of TOT and FOK. Using estimated parameters of the models, I constructed two sensitivity vs. metacognition (SvM) curves, which represent sensitivity in the recognition task, as a function of strength of metacognitive experiences: an SvM curve for TOT and an SvM curve for FOK. In addition, to evaluate the influence of TOT and FOK on the metacognitive sensitivity of confidence judgments, I fit two different GRT models and constructed two additional SvM curves, which represents metacognitive sensitivity of confidence, as a function of strength of TOT and FOK judgments.

The results of the GRT-based analyses showed that experiencing TOT and a high FOK are associated with an increase in sensitivity in the memory recognition task and an increase in metacognitive sensitivity of confidence judgments. These results were the first bias-free indication of metacognitive sensitivity of TOT and FOK judgments and the first report of influence of TOT and FOK on metacognitive sensitivity of confidence judgments.

Identifier

FIDC010505

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0791-7095

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Pournaghdali, Ali, "Signal Detection Analyses of the Relation of Prospective and Retrospective Metacognitive Judgments" (2022). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4941.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4941