Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action
<p>Throughout the history of psychology, a lively debate has surrounded people’s ability—known as metacognition—to represent, reflect upon, and control their own thoughts. This debate has taken many forms, from questioning whether it is even possible to be both subject and object of observatio...
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| フォーマット: | 学位論文 |
| 言語: | English |
| 出版事項: |
2019
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| _version_ | 1826281242520190976 |
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| author | Ben Yehuda, M |
| author2 | Murphy, R |
| author_facet | Murphy, R Ben Yehuda, M |
| author_sort | Ben Yehuda, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>Throughout the history of psychology, a lively debate has surrounded people’s ability—known as metacognition—to represent, reflect upon, and control their own thoughts. This debate has taken many forms, from questioning whether it is even possible to be both subject and object of observation in the first place, to discussing whether, if so, subjective experience is worth studying experimentally. The cognitive revolution and the associated resurgence in focus on the workings of the so-called black box has brought with it an increased interest in metacognition, its origins and its functions. The research in the present thesis follows in those footsteps and consists of an investigation into the role that metacognition serves during action, analysing two related types of judgments: the feeling of controlling one’s actions and their outcomes, known as sense of agency, and decision confidence.</p>
<p>The first half of my research evaluates whether sense of agency impacts performance monitoring and learning. Two experiments failed to identify a role for perceived control in modulating the extent to which people monitor the accuracy of their decisions. However, a second series of experiments found some evidence that being able to choose which action to perform might improve memory, so that both the outcomes and the actions that generated those outcomes are remembered better when choosing to act than when following an instruction.</p>
<p>In the second half of the thesis, I report studies using a combination of behavioural, electrophysiological, and computational methods to determine how confidence in the accuracy of one’s actions affects the way feedback is treated during learning. I present data indicating a role for confidence in modulating learning by regulating resource allocation to obtaining and processing feedback. This characteristic of confidence is reflected both in a negative relationship between prior confidence and the amplitude of neural signals associated with attention to feedback, and between confidence and deciding when to invest resources into obtaining further information about the accuracy of one’s actions. Overall, my results suggest that metacognition is not just an epiphenomenon accompanying our actions; rather, it shapes how we make decisions and learn about our environment.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:25:51Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:7e1a70c4-376f-4716-869b-2fb5b626a5fa |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:25:51Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7e1a70c4-376f-4716-869b-2fb5b626a5fa2022-03-26T21:08:11ZAgency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in actionThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:7e1a70c4-376f-4716-869b-2fb5b626a5faDecision makingEnglishHyrax Deposit2019Ben Yehuda, MMurphy, RYeung, N<p>Throughout the history of psychology, a lively debate has surrounded people’s ability—known as metacognition—to represent, reflect upon, and control their own thoughts. This debate has taken many forms, from questioning whether it is even possible to be both subject and object of observation in the first place, to discussing whether, if so, subjective experience is worth studying experimentally. The cognitive revolution and the associated resurgence in focus on the workings of the so-called black box has brought with it an increased interest in metacognition, its origins and its functions. The research in the present thesis follows in those footsteps and consists of an investigation into the role that metacognition serves during action, analysing two related types of judgments: the feeling of controlling one’s actions and their outcomes, known as sense of agency, and decision confidence.</p> <p>The first half of my research evaluates whether sense of agency impacts performance monitoring and learning. Two experiments failed to identify a role for perceived control in modulating the extent to which people monitor the accuracy of their decisions. However, a second series of experiments found some evidence that being able to choose which action to perform might improve memory, so that both the outcomes and the actions that generated those outcomes are remembered better when choosing to act than when following an instruction.</p> <p>In the second half of the thesis, I report studies using a combination of behavioural, electrophysiological, and computational methods to determine how confidence in the accuracy of one’s actions affects the way feedback is treated during learning. I present data indicating a role for confidence in modulating learning by regulating resource allocation to obtaining and processing feedback. This characteristic of confidence is reflected both in a negative relationship between prior confidence and the amplitude of neural signals associated with attention to feedback, and between confidence and deciding when to invest resources into obtaining further information about the accuracy of one’s actions. Overall, my results suggest that metacognition is not just an epiphenomenon accompanying our actions; rather, it shapes how we make decisions and learn about our environment.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Decision making Ben Yehuda, M Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action |
| title | Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action |
| title_full | Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action |
| title_fullStr | Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action |
| title_full_unstemmed | Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action |
| title_short | Agency and confidence: on the function of metacognition in action |
| title_sort | agency and confidence on the function of metacognition in action |
| topic | Decision making |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT benyehudam agencyandconfidenceonthefunctionofmetacognitioninaction |