Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior

TY - JOUR

T1 - Joint contributions of metacognition and self-beliefs to uncertainty-guided checking behavior

AU - Baptista, Axel

AU - Maheu, Maxime

AU - Mallet, Luc

AU - N'Diaye, Karim

N1 - © 2021. The Author(s).

PY - 2021/9/24

Y1 - 2021/9/24

N2 - Checking behavior is a natural and adaptive strategy for resolving uncertainty in everyday situations. Here, we aimed at investigating the psychological drivers of checking and its regulation by uncertainty, in non-clinical participants and controlled experimental settings. We found that the sensitivity of participants' explicit confidence judgments to actual performance (explicit metacognition) predicted the extent to which their checking strategy was regulated by uncertainty. Yet, a more implicit measure of metacognition (derived from asking participants to opt between trials) did not contribute to the regulation of checking behavior. Meanwhile, how participants scaled on questionnaires eliciting self-beliefs such as self-confidence and self-reported obsessive-compulsive symptoms also predicted participants' uncertainty-guided checking tendencies. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that checking behavior is likely the outcome of a core explicit metacognitive process operating at the scale of single decisions, while remaining influenced by general self-beliefs. Our findings are thus consistent with two mechanisms (micro vs. macro) through which this otherwise adaptive behavior could go awry in certain psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

AB - Checking behavior is a natural and adaptive strategy for resolving uncertainty in everyday situations. Here, we aimed at investigating the psychological drivers of checking and its regulation by uncertainty, in non-clinical participants and controlled experimental settings. We found that the sensitivity of participants' explicit confidence judgments to actual performance (explicit metacognition) predicted the extent to which their checking strategy was regulated by uncertainty. Yet, a more implicit measure of metacognition (derived from asking participants to opt between trials) did not contribute to the regulation of checking behavior. Meanwhile, how participants scaled on questionnaires eliciting self-beliefs such as self-confidence and self-reported obsessive-compulsive symptoms also predicted participants' uncertainty-guided checking tendencies. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that checking behavior is likely the outcome of a core explicit metacognitive process operating at the scale of single decisions, while remaining influenced by general self-beliefs. Our findings are thus consistent with two mechanisms (micro vs. macro) through which this otherwise adaptive behavior could go awry in certain psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

KW - Adaptation, Psychological

KW - Compulsive Behavior/etiology

KW - Culture

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Judgment

KW - Male

KW - Metacognition/physiology

KW - Obsessive Behavior/etiology

KW - Self Concept

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - Uncertainty

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-021-97958-1

DO - 10.1038/s41598-021-97958-1

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 34561475

VL - 11

JO - SCI REP-UK

JF - SCI REP-UK

SN - 2045-2322

IS - 1

M1 - 19017

ER -