Selective attention increases choice certainty in human decision making
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Selective attention increases choice certainty in human decision making. / Zizlsperger, Leopold; Sauvigny, Thomas; Haarmeier, Thomas.
In: PLOS ONE, Vol. 7, No. 7, 01.01.2012, p. e41136.Research output: SCORING: Contribution to journal › SCORING: Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Selective attention increases choice certainty in human decision making
AU - Zizlsperger, Leopold
AU - Sauvigny, Thomas
AU - Haarmeier, Thomas
PY - 2012/1/1
Y1 - 2012/1/1
N2 - Choice certainty is a probabilistic estimate of past performance and expected outcome. In perceptual decisions the degree of confidence correlates closely with choice accuracy and reaction times, suggesting an intimate relationship to objective performance. Here we show that spatial and feature-based attention increase human subjects' certainty more than accuracy in visual motion discrimination tasks. Our findings demonstrate for the first time a dissociation of choice accuracy and certainty with a significantly stronger influence of voluntary top-down attention on subjective performance measures than on objective performance. These results reveal a so far unknown mechanism of the selection process implemented by attention and suggest a unique biological valence of choice certainty beyond a faithful reflection of the decision process.
AB - Choice certainty is a probabilistic estimate of past performance and expected outcome. In perceptual decisions the degree of confidence correlates closely with choice accuracy and reaction times, suggesting an intimate relationship to objective performance. Here we show that spatial and feature-based attention increase human subjects' certainty more than accuracy in visual motion discrimination tasks. Our findings demonstrate for the first time a dissociation of choice accuracy and certainty with a significantly stronger influence of voluntary top-down attention on subjective performance measures than on objective performance. These results reveal a so far unknown mechanism of the selection process implemented by attention and suggest a unique biological valence of choice certainty beyond a faithful reflection of the decision process.
KW - Attention
KW - Choice Behavior
KW - Decision Making
KW - Fixation, Ocular
KW - Motion Perception
KW - Psychometrics
KW - Visual Perception
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0041136
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0041136
M3 - SCORING: Journal article
C2 - 22815942
VL - 7
SP - e41136
JO - PLOS ONE
JF - PLOS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 7
ER -