Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior
Abstract Checking behavior is a natural and adaptive strategy for resolving uncertainty in everyday situations. Here, we aimed at investigating the psychological drivers of checking and its regulation by uncertainty, in non-clinical participants and controlled experimental settings. We found that th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97958-1 |
| _version_ | 1818845562787594240 |
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| author | Axel Baptista Maxime Maheu Luc Mallet Karim N’Diaye |
| author_facet | Axel Baptista Maxime Maheu Luc Mallet Karim N’Diaye |
| author_sort | Axel Baptista |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Checking behavior is a natural and adaptive strategy for resolving uncertainty in everyday situations. Here, we aimed at investigating the psychological drivers of checking and its regulation by uncertainty, in non-clinical participants and controlled experimental settings. We found that the sensitivity of participants’ explicit confidence judgments to actual performance (explicit metacognition) predicted the extent to which their checking strategy was regulated by uncertainty. Yet, a more implicit measure of metacognition (derived from asking participants to opt between trials) did not contribute to the regulation of checking behavior. Meanwhile, how participants scaled on questionnaires eliciting self-beliefs such as self-confidence and self-reported obsessive–compulsive symptoms also predicted participants’ uncertainty-guided checking tendencies. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that checking behavior is likely the outcome of a core explicit metacognitive process operating at the scale of single decisions, while remaining influenced by general self-beliefs. Our findings are thus consistent with two mechanisms (micro vs. macro) through which this otherwise adaptive behavior could go awry in certain psychiatric disorders such as obsessive–compulsive disorder. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:31:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-25b5e2dea39f4df69143dd3a9c83c45b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:31:38Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-25b5e2dea39f4df69143dd3a9c83c45b2022-12-21T20:34:13ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222021-09-0111111010.1038/s41598-021-97958-1Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behaviorAxel Baptista0Maxime Maheu1Luc Mallet2Karim N’Diaye3Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, INSERM U1127, CNRS UMR7225, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne UniversitéInstitut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, INSERM U1127, CNRS UMR7225, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne UniversitéInstitut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, INSERM U1127, CNRS UMR7225, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne UniversitéInstitut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, INSERM U1127, CNRS UMR7225, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne UniversitéAbstract Checking behavior is a natural and adaptive strategy for resolving uncertainty in everyday situations. Here, we aimed at investigating the psychological drivers of checking and its regulation by uncertainty, in non-clinical participants and controlled experimental settings. We found that the sensitivity of participants’ explicit confidence judgments to actual performance (explicit metacognition) predicted the extent to which their checking strategy was regulated by uncertainty. Yet, a more implicit measure of metacognition (derived from asking participants to opt between trials) did not contribute to the regulation of checking behavior. Meanwhile, how participants scaled on questionnaires eliciting self-beliefs such as self-confidence and self-reported obsessive–compulsive symptoms also predicted participants’ uncertainty-guided checking tendencies. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that checking behavior is likely the outcome of a core explicit metacognitive process operating at the scale of single decisions, while remaining influenced by general self-beliefs. Our findings are thus consistent with two mechanisms (micro vs. macro) through which this otherwise adaptive behavior could go awry in certain psychiatric disorders such as obsessive–compulsive disorder.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97958-1 |
| spellingShingle | Axel Baptista Maxime Maheu Luc Mallet Karim N’Diaye Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior Scientific Reports |
| title | Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior |
| title_full | Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior |
| title_fullStr | Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior |
| title_full_unstemmed | Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior |
| title_short | Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior |
| title_sort | joint contributions of metacognition and self beliefs to uncertainty guided checking behavior |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97958-1 |
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