There are things that we know that we know, and there are things that we do not know we do not know: Confidence in decision-making

Piercesare Grimaldi; Hakwan Lau; Michele A Basso

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.006

There are things that we know that we know, and there are things that we do not know we do not know: Confidence in decision-making

Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2015 Aug:55:88-97. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.006. Epub 2015 Apr 28.

Authors

Piercesare Grimaldi¹, Hakwan Lau², Michele A Basso³

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neurobiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; The Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; The Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: pcgrimaldi@ucla.edu.
² Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; The Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neurobiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; The Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; The Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Metacognition, the ability to think about our own thoughts, is a fundamental component of our mental life and is involved in memory, learning, planning and decision-making. Here we focus on one aspect of metacognition, namely confidence in perceptual decisions. We review the literature in psychophysics, neuropsychology and neuroscience. Although still a very new field, several recent studies suggest there are specific brain circuits devoted to monitoring and reporting confidence, whereas others suggest that confidence information is encoded within decision-making circuits. We provide suggestions, based on interdisciplinary research, to disentangle these disparate results.

Keywords: Awareness; Confidence; Consciousness; Metacognition; Monitoring.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Cognition / physiology*
Decision Making / physiology*
Humans
Neurosciences
Psychology
Psychophysics
Thinking / physiology*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding