School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
J Exp Psychol Appl. 2011 Jun;17(2):148-58. doi: 10.1037/a0023276.
We report two experiments that investigated the regulation of memory accuracy with a new regulatory mechanism: the plurality option. This mechanism is closely related to the grain-size option but involves control over the number of alternatives contained in an answer rather than the quantitative boundaries of a single answer. Participants were presented with a slideshow depicting a robbery (Experiment 1) or a murder (Experiment 2), and their memory was tested with five-alternative multiple-choice questions. For each question, participants were asked to generate two answers: a single answer consisting of one alternative and a plural answer consisting of the single answer and two other alternatives. Each answer was rated for confidence (Experiment 1) or for the likelihood of being correct (Experiment 2), and one of the answers was selected for reporting. Results showed that participants used the plurality option to regulate accuracy, selecting single answers when their accuracy and confidence were high, but opting for plural answers when they were low. Although accuracy was higher for selected plural than for selected single answers, the opposite pattern was evident for confidence or likelihood ratings. This dissociation between confidence and accuracy for selected answers was the result of marked overconfidence in single answers coupled with underconfidence in plural answers. We hypothesize that these results can be attributed to overly dichotomous metacognitive beliefs about personal knowledge states that cause subjective confidence to be extreme.
我们报告了两项实验，旨在研究一种新的调节机制——复数选项，以调节记忆准确性。该机制与粒度选项密切相关，但涉及对答案中包含的替代方案数量的控制，而不是单个答案的定量边界。参与者观看了一个幻灯片展示的抢劫（实验 1）或谋杀（实验 2）场景，然后用五选一多项选择题对他们的记忆进行测试。对于每个问题，参与者被要求生成两个答案：一个由一个选项组成的单一答案，以及一个由单一答案和另外两个选项组成的复数答案。每个答案都被要求进行置信度评级（实验 1）或正确可能性评级（实验 2），然后选择一个答案进行报告。结果表明，参与者使用复数选项来调节准确性，当他们的准确性和置信度较高时，选择单一答案，而当准确性和置信度较低时，则选择复数答案。虽然选择的复数答案比选择的单一答案准确性更高，但置信度或可能性评级的模式则相反。这种对选择答案的信心和准确性之间的分离是由于对个人知识状态的过分二分法元认知信念导致的，这导致主观信心变得极端。我们假设，这些结果可以归因于对个人知识状态的过分二分法元认知信念，这导致主观信心变得极端。我们假设，这些结果可以归因于对个人知识状态的过分二分法元认知信念，这导致主观信心变得极端。我们假设，这些结果可以归因于对个人知识状态的过分二分法元认知信念，这导致主观信心变得极端。
