History biases reveal novel dissociations between perceptual and metacognitive decision-making

Benwell, C. S.Y., Beyer, R., Wallington, F. and Ince, R. A.A. (2023) History biases reveal novel dissociations between perceptual and metacognitive decision-making. Journal of Vision, 23(5), 14. (doi: 10.1167/jov.23.5.14) (PMID:37200046) (PMCID:PMC10207958)

Abstract

Human decision-making and self-reflection often depend on context and internal biases. For instance, decisions are often influenced by preceding choices, regardless of their relevance. It remains unclear how choice history influences different levels of the decision-making hierarchy. We used analyses grounded in information and detection theories to estimate the relative strength of perceptual and metacognitive history biases and to investigate whether they emerge from common/unique mechanisms. Although both perception and metacognition tended to be biased toward previous responses, we observed novel dissociations that challenge normative theories of confidence. Different evidence levels often informed perceptual and metacognitive decisions within observers, and response history distinctly influenced first- (perceptual) and second- (metacognitive) order decision-parameters, with the metacognitive bias likely to be strongest and most prevalent in the general population. We propose that recent choices and subjective confidence represent heuristics, which inform first- and second-order decisions in the absence of more relevant evidence.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: CSYB was supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust and the United Kingdom Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [SRG19/191169]. RAAI was supported by the Wellcome Trust [214120/Z/18/Z].
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wallington, Mr Francis and Benwell, Mr Christopher and Ince, Dr Robin
• Authors: Benwell, C. S.Y., Beyer, R., Wallington, F., and Ince, R. A.A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Journal of Vision
• Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
• ISSN: 1534-7362
• ISSN (Online): 1534-7362
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © TheAuthor(s) 2023
• First Published: First published in Journal of Vision 23(5):14
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a creative commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
304240		Beyond Pairwise Connectivity: developing an information theoretic hypergraph methodology for multi-modal resting state neuroimaging analysis	Robin Ince	Wellcome Trust (WELLCOTR)	214120/Z/18/Z	Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging