Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
Cognition. 2021 Feb;207:104525. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104525. Epub 2020 Dec 4.
Contemporary theoretical accounts of metacognition propose that action-related information is used in the computation of perceptual decision confidence. We investigated whether the amount of expended physical effort, or the 'motoric sunk cost' of a decision, influences perceptual decision confidence judgements in humans. In particular, we examined whether people feel more confident in decisions which required more effort to report. Forty-two participants performed a luminance discrimination task that involved identifying which of two flickering grayscale squares was brightest. Participants reported their choice by squeezing hand-held dynamometers. Across trials, the effort required to report a decision was varied across three levels (low, medium, high). Critically, participants were only aware of the required effort level on each trial once they had initiated their motor response, meaning that the varying effort requirements could not influence their initial decisions. Following each decision, participants rated their confidence in their choice. We found that participants were more confident in decisions that required greater effort to report. This suggests that humans are sensitive to motoric sunk costs and supports contemporary models of metacognition in which actions inform the computation of decision confidence.
当代关于元认知的理论观点提出，与行动相关的信息被用于计算感知决策的置信度。我们研究了决策过程中所消耗的体力（或“运动沉没成本”）是否会影响人类对感知决策信心的判断。具体来说，我们考察了人们是否会对需要更多努力来报告的决策更有信心。42 名参与者执行了一项亮度辨别任务，涉及识别两个闪烁灰度方块中哪一个更亮。参与者通过挤压手持测力计来报告他们的选择。在整个试验过程中，报告决策所需的努力在三个水平（低、中、高）上变化。关键是，参与者只有在启动他们的运动反应后才知道每个试验的所需努力水平，这意味着不断变化的努力要求不能影响他们的初始决策。在每次决策后，参与者会对自己的选择信心进行评分。我们发现，参与者对需要更多努力来报告的决策更有信心。这表明人类对运动沉没成本很敏感，并支持了元认知的当代模型，即行动为决策信心的计算提供信息。
