Biology subjects

Paulewicz, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Paulewicz, B..

7 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Confidence in action: differences between perceived accuracy of decision and motor response

Each of our decisions is associated with a degree of confidence. This confidence can change once we have acted as we might start doubting our choice or even become convinced that we made a mistake. In this study, we explore the relations between action and our confidence that our decision was correct or erroneous. Fifty-six volunteers took part in a perceptual decision task in which their decisions could either lead to action or not. At the end of each trial, participants rated their confidence that their decision was correct, or they reported that they had made an error. The main results showed that when given after a response, confidence ratings were higher and more strongly related to decision accuracy, and post-response reports of errors more often indicated actual errors. The results support the view that error awareness and confidence might be partially based on post-action processing.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2020

Task-related motor response inflates confidence

Studies on confidence in decision-making tasks have repeatedly shown correlations between confidence and the characteristics of motor responses. Here, we show the results of two experiments in which we manipulated the type of motor response that precedes confidence rating. Participants decided which box, left or right, contained more dots and then reported their confidence in this decision. In Experiment 1, prior to confidence rating, participants were required to follow a motor cue. Cued-response type was manipulated in two dimensions: task-compatibility (the relation between response set and task-relevant decision alternatives), and stimulus-congruence (spatial correspondence between response key and the location of the stimulus that should be chosen). In Experiment 2, a decision-related response set was randomly varied in each trial, being either vertical (task incompatible) or horizontal (task-compatible, spatially congruent and incongruent). The main results showed that choice confidence increased following task-compatible responses, i.e. responses related to the alternatives of the choice in which confidence was reported. Moreover, confidence was higher in these conditions, independently of response accuracy and spatial congruence with the correct stimuli. We interpret these results as suggesting that action appropriate in the context of a given task is an indicator of successful completion of the decision-related process. Such an action, even a spurious one, inflates decisional confidence.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2020

Metacognition and memory of emotional information:Judgments of learning predict the affectivity congruence effect in free recall

Memory of emotional information often depends on the current mood and the dominant affective state. For example, studies show that people tend to recall emotional information of valence that is congruent with their affective traits. However, not much is known about whether this tendency is captured by metacognitive judgments of learning (JOLs). The aim of this study was to find out how people who score low or high on affectivity scales assess their memory of emotional material. We used a free-recall task with self-referential neutral, positive, and negative adjectives. The results show the affectivity congruence effect: the number of negative words recalled is related to affectivity; it increases with Negative Affectivity (NA) and decreases with Positive Affectivity (PA). Metacognitive assessment of future recall is also related to affectivity. Higher PA is related to higher JOLs for positive words and lower JOLs for negative words. Higher NA is related to higher JOLs for negative words and lower JOLs for positive words. The results suggest that metacognitive processes are sensitive to affective trait-specific memory bias.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2019

TMS-induced motor activation increases visual awareness

The influence of non-visual information on visual awareness judgments has recently gained substantial interest. Using single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), we investigate the potential contribution of evidence from the motor system to judgment of visual awareness. We hypothesized that TMS-induced activity in the primary motor cortex (M1) would increase reported visual awareness as compared to the control condition. Additionally, we investigated whether TMS-induced motor-evoked potential could measure accumulated evidence for stimulus perception. Following stimulus presentation and TMS, participants first rated their visual awareness verbally using the Perceptual Awareness Scale, after which they responded manually to a Gabor orientation identification task. Delivering TMS to M1 resulted in higher average awareness ratings as compared to the control condition, in both correct and incorrect identification task response trials, when the hand with which participants responded was contralateral to the stimulated hemisphere (TMS-response-congruent trials). This effect was accompanied by longer Perceptual Awareness Scale response times, irrespective of the congruence between TMS and identification response. Moreover, longer identification response times were observed in TMS-response-congruent trials in the M1 condition as compared to the control condition. Additionally, the amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials were related to the awareness ratings when response congruence was taken into account. We argue that motor-evoked potential can serve as an indirect measure of evidence accumulated for stimulus perception and that longer Perceptual Awareness Scale response times and higher amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials in the M1 condition reflect integration of additional evidence with visual awareness judgment. In conclusion, we advocate that motor activity influences perceptual awareness judgments.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Visual awareness judgments are sensitive to the outcome of performance monitoring

In this study we tested the hypothesis that perceptual awareness judgments are sensitive to the accuracy feedback about previous behaviour. We used a perceptual discrimination task in which participants reported their stimulus awareness. We created two conditions: No-feedback and Feedback (discrimination accuracy feedback was provided at the end of each trial). The results showed that visual awareness judgments are related to the accuracy of current and previous responses. Participants reported lower stimulus awareness for incorrectly versus correctly discriminated stimuli in both conditions; they also reported lower stimulus awareness in trials preceded by incorrect discrimination responses, compared to trials preceded by correct discrimination. This difference was significantly stronger in the Feedback condition. Moreover, in the Feedback condition we also observed larger post-error slowing for PAS ratings. We discuss the relation between the effects of performance monitoring and visual awareness and interpret the results in the context of current theories of consciousness.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2018

You’d better decide first: overt and covert decisions improve metacognitive accuracy

How can we assess the accuracy of our decisions? Recent theoretical and empirical work suggest that confidence in ones decision is influenced by the characteristics of motor response in a preceding decisional task. In this paper we present experiment designed to test whether decision itself can also inform confidence and therefore increase its accuracy. We tested 143 participants who solved an anagram-solving task in one of 3 conditions: participants either rated their confidence immediately after responding to the anagram task (overt decision), rated their confidence immediately after making a decision but without overt response (covered decision), or rated their confidence before both deciding and responding. The results showed significant relationship between decision accuracy and confidence level in each condition, however this relation was stronger when confidence rating followed decision, either covert or overt. We argue that completing a decisionmaking process increases metacognitive accuracy.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2018

Motor Responses Influence Perceptual Awareness Judgements

Perception and action are tightly related, but what is the relation between perceptual awareness and action? In this study we tested the hypothesis that motor response influences perceptual awareness judgements. We design a procedure in which participants were asked to decide whether Gabor grating was oriented towards the left or the right. Presentation of the stimuli was immediately followed by a cue requiring motor response that was irrelevant to the task but could be the same, opposite or neutral to the correct response to the Gabor patch. After responding to the cue participants were asked to rate their stimulus awareness using Perceptual Awareness Scale and then to report their discrimination decision.\n\nThe results showed that participants reported a higher level of stimulus awareness after carrying out responses that were either congruent or incongruent with a response required by a stimulus, compared to the neutral condition. The results suggest that directional motor response (congruent or incongruent with correct response to the stimulus) provides information about the decision process and its outcome increasing reported awareness of a stimulus.

animal behavior and cognition↗