How do we judge our confidence? Differential effects of meta‐memory feedback on eyewitness accuracy and confidence

Iida, Ryoji; Itsukusima, Yukio; Mah, Eric Y.

doi:10.1002/acp.3625

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This initial test mechanism may also explain why participants rarely changed their responses following negative feedback. Indeed, research suggests that feedback is likely to have a greater impact on eyewitness memory reports when a witness's memory is relatively weak than when their memory is relatively strong (Charman et al, 2010;Iida et al, 2020). Thus, completing an initial memory test may have enabled our participants to perform relatively well on leading and leading-with-feedback questions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Effect of Cross-Examination Style Questions on Adult Eyewitness Accuracy Depends on Question Type and Eyewitness Confidence

Wade¹,

Spearing²

2022

Preprint

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In adversarial legal systems across the world, witnesses in criminal trials are subjected to cross-examination. The questions that cross-examiners pose to witnesses are often complex and confusing; they might include negatives, double negatives, leading questions, closed questions, either/or questions, or complex syntax and vocabulary. Few psycholegal studies have explored the impact of such questions on the accuracy of adult witnesses’ reports. In two experiments, we adapted the standard investigative interview procedure to examine the effect of five types of cross-examination style questions on witness accuracy and confidence. Participants watched a mock crime video and answered simple-style questions about the event. Following a delay, participants answered both cross-examination style questions and simple questions about the event. Negative and Double negative questions sometimes impaired the accuracy of witnesses’ responses during cross-examination, whereas Leading and Leading-with feedback questions did not impair – but sometimes enhanced – the accuracy of witnesses’ responses. Participants who were better at discriminating between correct and incorrect responses on the initial memory test were more likely to improve the accuracy of their reports during cross-examination. Our findings suggest that the effect of cross-examination style questions on eyewitness accuracy depends on question type and witnesses’ confidence in their responses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Effect of Cross-Examination Style Questions on Adult Eyewitness Accuracy Depends on Question Type and Eyewitness Confidence

Wade¹,

Spearing²

2022

Preprint

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“…However, during this evaluation, individuals may display tendencies of overconfidence or a lack of confidence, leading to a disparity between perceived and actual performance and affecting the accuracy of individual metacognitive monitoring ( Baranski and Petrusic 1994 ; Çapan et al 2022 ; Jackson et al 2017 ; Putnam et al 2022 ). Various factors, such as experience ( Cichoń et al 2018 ), feedback ( Iida et al 2020 ), and effort ( Lee and Daunizeau 2021 ) can affect individuals’ confidence judgments. The most important and common influencing factor is the item difficulty ( Arnold et al 2017 ; Clariana and Park 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Item Difficulty on Judgment of Confidence—A Cross-Level Moderated Mediation Model

Zhou

Jia

2023

J. Intell.

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The factors that influence metacognitive judgments often appear in combination, rather than in isolation. The multi-cue utilization model proposes that individuals often make use of multiple cues when making judgments. Previous studies have focused on the integration of intrinsic and extrinsic cues, while the current investigation examines the integration and influence of intrinsic cues and mnemonic cues. Judgment of confidence is a common form of metacognitive judgment. In this study, 37 college students completed Raven’s Progressive Matrices and made judgments of confidence. We used the cross-level moderated mediation model to explore the impact of item difficulty on confidence judgments. Our results indicated that item difficulty negatively predicts the level of confidence. Item difficulty has an impact on the confidence evaluation by altering the processing fluency of intermediate variables. The joint effect of intrinsic cue item difficulty and mnemonic cue processing fluency influences confidence judgments. Additionally, we found that intelligence moderates the effect of difficulty on processing fluency across levels. Specifically, individuals with higher intelligence exhibited lower fluency on difficult tasks and higher fluency on simple tasks than individuals with lower intelligence. These findings expand on the multi-cue utilization model and integrate the influence mechanism of intrinsic and mnemonic cues on confidence judgments. Finally, we propose and verify a cross-level moderated mediation model that explains how item difficulty affects confidence judgments.

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“…Previous research supports this prediction, showing that how people feel about their memory ability affects their confidence in their memory, and this effect is larger when their memory is relatively weak. For example, receiving feedback about one’s memory ability has a larger influence on confidence when internal cues are weak than when internal cues are strong (Charman et al, 2010; Iida et al, 2020). This account may explain why one previous study found that perceived memory ability did not predict accuracy or confidence when participants’ memories were tested after a short 5-min delay (Saraiva et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, one study suggested that line-up identifications made with high confidence are likely to be, on average, highly accurate, even when eyewitness accuracy is reduced by variables outside the control of the legal system (e.g., long retention intervals; Semmler et al, 2018). But there is also evidence that some factors, such as feedback about one’s memory ability and exposure to misinformation, may impair the confidence–accuracy relationship (e.g., Flowe et al, 2019; Iida et al, 2020; Pezdek et al, 2020; Spearing & Wade, in press). One well-studied factor that is known to systematically reduce the quantity and accuracy of witnesses’ memory reports but has rarely been studied in the confidence–accuracy literature is the delay period between when a crime occurs and when a witness is asked to provide evidence (Tuckey & Brewer, 2003).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Long retention intervals impair the confidence–accuracy relationship for eyewitness recall.

Spearing¹,

Wade²

2022

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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A growing body of research suggests that confidence judgments can provide a useful indicator of memory accuracy under some conditions. One factor known to affect eyewitness accuracy, yet rarely examined in the confidence-accuracy literature, is retention interval. Using calibration analyses, we investigated how retention interval affects the confidence-accuracy relationship for eyewitness recall. In total, 611 adults watched a mock crime video and completed a cued-recall test either immediately, after 1 week, or after 1 month. Long (1 month) delays led to lower memory accuracy, lower confidence judgments, and impaired the confidence-accuracy relationship compared to shorter (immediate and 1 week) delays. Long-delay participants who reported very high levels of confidence tended to be overconfident in the accuracy of their memories compared to other participants. Self-rated memory ability, however, did not predict eyewitness confidence or the confidence-accuracy relationship. We discuss the findings in relation to cue-utilization theory and a retrieval-fluency account.

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How do we judge our confidence? Differential effects of meta‐memory feedback on eyewitness accuracy and confidence

Cited by 9 publications

References 22 publications

The Effect of Cross-Examination Style Questions on Adult Eyewitness Accuracy Depends on Question Type and Eyewitness Confidence

The Effect of Cross-Examination Style Questions on Adult Eyewitness Accuracy Depends on Question Type and Eyewitness Confidence

The Impact of Item Difficulty on Judgment of Confidence—A Cross-Level Moderated Mediation Model

Long retention intervals impair the confidence–accuracy relationship for eyewitness recall.

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