de Gardelle, V. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2018

When temporal attention lacks confidence

Accurate decision-making requires estimating the uncertainty of perceptual events. Temporal attention is known to enhance the selection of a stimulus at a relevant time, but how does this selective process affect a decisions confidence? Here, we adapted an \"Attentional blink\" paradigm to investigate the effect of temporal attention on confidence judgments. In a RSVP stream of letters, two targets were cued to induce two successive attentional episodes. We found that the confidence ratings given to an item systematically followed the probability with which this item was reported. This coupling made confidence oblivious to selection delays usually observed when the two targets were separated by long intervals (249ms to 747ms). In particular, during this period, confidence was higher for more delayed item selection. One exception to this relationship between confidence and temporal selection was found when the second target appeared soon after (83ms) the first attentional episode. Here, a strong under-confidence bias was observed. Importantly, however, this early confidence bias did not impact confidence sensitivity in discriminating correct and erroneous responses. These results suggest that temporal attention and confidence can operate at different time scales, a difference which seems to reflect high-level heuristic biases rather than segregated processes for decision and confidence evidence.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Confidence as a priority signal

When dealing with multiple tasks, we often find ourselves in the problem of establishing the order in which to tackle them. Here we asked whether confidence, the subjective feeling in the accuracy of our decisions, plays an active role in this ordering problem. In a series of experiments, we show that confidence acts as a priority signal when ordering responses about tasks already completed, or ordering tasks that are to be made. In experiments 1-3, participants were engaged in a dual task and categorized perceptual stimuli along two dimensions. We found that they tended to give first the decision in which they were more confident. We also prove that confidence drives prioritization above and beyond task difficulty or response accuracy, and we discard alternative interpretations in terms of response availability or task demands. In experiments 4-6, we show that when participants have to select which of two sets of trials they want to perform first, they engage first in the set associated with higher confidence, and we extend this finding to situations involving non-perceptual (mental calculation) decisions. Our results thus support the role of confidence as a priority signal, thereby demonstrating a new way in which it regulates human behavior.\n\nHighlightsO_LIWe show that when having to decide the order in which to approach two tasks, humans prefer to start with the one they feel more confident in.\nC_LIO_LIThis holds both when deciding in which order to report two already completed tasks, and when deciding the order in which to tackle two tasks yet to complete. Our results are replicated in perceptual and non-perceptual situations.\nC_LIO_LIThe role of confidence on prioritization cannot be reduced to that of task difficulty or response accuracy.\nC_LIO_LIOur findings demonstrate a new way in which confidence regulates human behavior.\nC_LI

neuroscience↗