Department of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Trinity College Institute for Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jun 28;14(1):14941. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-64900-0.
Metacognitive biases have been repeatedly associated with transdiagnostic psychiatric dimensions of 'anxious-depression' and 'compulsivity and intrusive thought', cross-sectionally. To progress our understanding of the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, new methods are required to measure metacognition remotely, within individuals over time. We developed a gamified smartphone task designed to measure visuo-perceptual metacognitive (confidence) bias and investigated its psychometric properties across two studies (N = 3410 unpaid citizen scientists, N = 52 paid participants). We assessed convergent validity, split-half and test-retest reliability, and identified the minimum number of trials required to capture its clinical correlates. Convergent validity of metacognitive bias was moderate (r(50) = 0.64, p < 0.001) and it demonstrated excellent split-half reliability (r(50) = 0.91, p < 0.001). Anxious-depression was associated with decreased confidence (β = - 0.23, SE = 0.02, p < 0.001), while compulsivity and intrusive thought was associated with greater confidence (β = 0.07, SE = 0.02, p < 0.001). The associations between metacognitive biases and transdiagnostic psychiatry dimensions are evident in as few as 40 trials. Metacognitive biases in decision-making are stable within and across sessions, exhibiting very high test-retest reliability for the 100-trial (ICC = 0.86, N = 110) and 40-trial (ICC = 0.86, N = 120) versions of Meta Mind. Hybrid 'self-report cognition' tasks may be one way to bridge the recently discussed reliability gap in computational psychiatry.
元认知偏差与“焦虑-抑郁”和“强迫和侵入性思维”等跨诊断精神科维度在横断面上反复相关。为了深入了解潜在的神经认知机制，需要新的方法来远程测量个体随时间的元认知。我们开发了一种游戏化的智能手机任务，旨在测量视觉感知元认知（信心）偏差，并在两项研究中（N=3410 名无报酬的公民科学家，N=52 名付费参与者）研究其心理测量特性。我们评估了收敛效度、半分测试和重测信度，并确定了捕获其临床相关性所需的最小试验次数。元认知偏差的收敛效度适中（r(50)=0.64，p<0.001），且表现出极好的半分可靠性（r(50)=0.91，p<0.001）。焦虑-抑郁与信心降低有关（β= -0.23，SE=0.02，p<0.001），而强迫和侵入性思维与更大的信心有关（β=0.07，SE=0.02，p<0.001）。元认知偏差与跨诊断精神病学维度之间的关联在 40 次试验中即可显现。在会话内和会话间，决策中的元认知偏差是稳定的，在 100 次试验（ICC=0.86，N=110）和 40 次试验（ICC=0.86，N=120）的 Meta Mind 版本中具有非常高的重测信度。混合“自我报告认知”任务可能是弥合计算精神病学中最近讨论的可靠性差距的一种方法。
