The dissociations of confidence from accuracy in forced-choice recognition judgments

Hanczakowski, M., Butowska, E., Beaman, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5124-242X, Jones, D. and Zawadzka, K. (2021) The dissociations of confidence from accuracy in forced-choice recognition judgments. Journal of Memory and Language, 117. 104189. ISSN 0749-596X doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2020.104189

Abstract/Summary

Judgment of confidence in memory is likely to track memory accuracy if those factors shaping accuracy also shape confidence. In recognition memory, accuracy is determined by the relative level of evidence present for the target and that supporting the lures. As the discrepancy between targets and lures increases, so does the likelihood of correct responding. In contrast, this study shows that confidence can instead depend on the absolute evidence supporting the chosen target rather than the balance of evidence between targets and lures. In four experiments, using different types of forced-choice recognition tests, we demonstrate that generally manipulating the strength of evidence supporting targets affects confidence judgments but that varying the strength of evidence supporting lures creates robust confidence-accuracy dissociations, changing accuracy while not affecting confidence. Together, these data support an absolute account of confidence in forced-choice recognition and demonstrate that confidence-accuracy dissociations across recognition conditions are likely to be ubiquitous.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/93775
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.jml.2020.104189
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Language and Cognition Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Cognition Research (CCR)
Publisher	Elsevier
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