Does perceptual confidence facilitate cognitive control?

Abstract

Our visual perception is typically accompanied by a sense of subjective confidence. Since perceptual confidence is related to prefrontal activity, higher perceptual confidence may enhance cognitive control functions. To examine this interaction, we developed a novel method to selectively manipulate perceptual confidence while keeping stimulus discrimination accuracy constant. In a behavioral experiment, grating stimuli with different orientations were presented as go/no-go signals. Surprisingly, the results showed that confidence in visual discrimination of the signals on its own did not facilitate response inhibition, since when participants were presented with stimuli that yielded higher confidence, they were no better at performing a go/no-go task. These results were replicated with different (dot motion) stimuli, ruling out alternative explanations based on stimulus idiosyncrasy. In a different experiment, when the grating stimuli were presented as cues for task set preparation, we found that higher perceptual confidence also did not enhance task set preparation efficiency. This result was again replicated with dot motion stimuli. Since confidence may relate to perceptual awareness (Peirce & Jastrow, 1885), our findings may put current dominant theories in question, since these theories often suppose the critical involvement of consciousness in cognitive control. As a proof of concept, our method may also provide a new and powerful way to examine other functions of consciousness in future studies.

Prestimulus alpha-band power biases visual discrimination confidence, but not accuracy

“…1). Whereas this has been empirically demonstrated through manipulations of stimulus evidence (Koizumi et al, 2015; Samaha, Barrett, et al, 2016; Zylberberg et al, 2014), we show that this is the case when internal evidence fluctuates spontaneously as a function of cortical excitability, as indexed by prestimulus alpha power.…”

“…Their findings show that, whereas choice accuracy was determined by relative difference in luminance between the two stimuli, confidence was insensitive to fluctuations in luminance for the non-chosen stimulus but was driven by the absolute luminance of the chosen stimulus. Subsequent work found that proportionally increasing the contrast of a target as well as the contrast of noise (or a non-target, e.g., Koizumi, Maniscalco, & Lau, 2015; Expt 1A) led to increased confidence despite no change to accuracy (Koizumi et al, 2015; Samaha, Barrett, Sheldon, LaRocque, & Postle, 2016). Here, we measured prestimulus alpha power as a trial-by-trial index of cortical excitability while observers judged the orientation of a grating and provided subjective confidence ratings.…”

Self-evaluation of decision-making: A general Bayesian framework for metacognitive computation.

“…Introducing these normative constraints into models of metacognition is an important goal for future work. For instance, it would be of interest to explore whether differential sensitivity to evidence for or against a choice (Koizumi et al, 2015; Maniscalco et al, 2016; Zylberberg et al, 2012), and differential effects of attention on performance and confidence (Rahnev et al, 2011; Solovey et al, 2015) could be accommodated in a Bayesian framework with appropriate constraints. The current framework may also provide a benchmark from which to assess other apparent suboptimalities in confidence that are normative when appropriate computational considerations are taken into account (e.g., the effects of actions on subsequent confidence ratings).…”

Multivoxel neurofeedback selectively modulates confidence without changing perceptual performance

“…Although some studies also adopt a normative approach and define confidence in close association with the strength of the internal perceptual signal11, several studies suggest that confidence and perceptual performance can be dissociated91516171819. For example, applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) resulted in a change in confidence reports without changing task performance9.…”