Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks
Upon making a decision, we typically have a sense of the likelihood that the decision we reached was a good one; that is, a degree of confidence in our choice. In a series of five experiments, we tested the hypothesis that confidence acts as an intrinsic cost-benefit factor when choosing between tas...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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American Psychological Association
2020
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| _version_ | 1797062550082289664 |
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| author | Carlebach, N Yeung, N |
| author_facet | Carlebach, N Yeung, N |
| author_sort | Carlebach, N |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Upon making a decision, we typically have a sense of the likelihood that the decision we reached was a good one; that is, a degree of confidence in our choice. In a series of five experiments, we tested the hypothesis that confidence acts as an intrinsic cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks, biasing people toward situations in which they experience higher confidence. Participants performed a task-selection paradigm in which they chose on each trial between two perceptual-judgment tasks that were matched for objective difficulty but differed in participants’ experienced confidence, with confidence manipulated via differences in the strength of postdecisional evidence. The results show that participants exhibited a preference for tasks in which they reported higher confidence. The effect of confidence on task selection went above and beyond simple error detection, with people not only avoiding tasks in which they believed they made an error, but also tending to select tasks in which they experienced higher confidence in their correct responses. Moreover, preference for high-confidence tasks was evident even when external feedback was provided on every trial. Collectively, these results indicate that subjective confidence guides choices of which situations and tasks to engage with, as a valuable indicator of likely success. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:47:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:364899d6-d8ad-45ca-b99a-5ab6566cadc0 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:47:07Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | American Psychological Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:364899d6-d8ad-45ca-b99a-5ab6566cadc02022-03-26T13:36:54ZSubjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasksJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:364899d6-d8ad-45ca-b99a-5ab6566cadc0EnglishSymplectic ElementsAmerican Psychological Association2020Carlebach, NYeung, NUpon making a decision, we typically have a sense of the likelihood that the decision we reached was a good one; that is, a degree of confidence in our choice. In a series of five experiments, we tested the hypothesis that confidence acts as an intrinsic cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks, biasing people toward situations in which they experience higher confidence. Participants performed a task-selection paradigm in which they chose on each trial between two perceptual-judgment tasks that were matched for objective difficulty but differed in participants’ experienced confidence, with confidence manipulated via differences in the strength of postdecisional evidence. The results show that participants exhibited a preference for tasks in which they reported higher confidence. The effect of confidence on task selection went above and beyond simple error detection, with people not only avoiding tasks in which they believed they made an error, but also tending to select tasks in which they experienced higher confidence in their correct responses. Moreover, preference for high-confidence tasks was evident even when external feedback was provided on every trial. Collectively, these results indicate that subjective confidence guides choices of which situations and tasks to engage with, as a valuable indicator of likely success. |
| spellingShingle | Carlebach, N Yeung, N Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| title | Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| title_full | Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| title_fullStr | Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| title_short | Subjective confidence acts as an internal cost-benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| title_sort | subjective confidence acts as an internal cost benefit factor when choosing between tasks |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carlebachn subjectiveconfidenceactsasaninternalcostbenefitfactorwhenchoosingbetweentasks AT yeungn subjectiveconfidenceactsasaninternalcostbenefitfactorwhenchoosingbetweentasks |