Response generation, not response execution, influences feelings of rightness in reasoning

Abstract

It has been argued that the experience of ease (i.e., the ability to quickly generate an initial response) during processing influences one’s likelihood of engaging reflectively when reasoning. This is a key feature of of Thompson et al.’s (2011) Metcogntive Reasoning Theory (MRT), and numerous studies have found support for this claim by showing that answers that come to mind quickly, are associated with higher feelings of rightness (FOR), and less reflective processing. However, the possibility remains that the critical determinant of FORs may be the speed of executing a response, and not generating a response given the nature of the evidence for this claim. Across two Experiments, we manipulated the duration of the response execution in order to identify whether participants’ FOR judgments are at least partially based on factors occurring after the initial mental generation of an answer. We found no evidence that FORs nor reflection are influenced by a manipulation of response execution. Broadly, the present investigation provides evidence that the relation between speed of response and FORs is likely due to the speed with which an answer is generated internally, and not the response execution phase. These findings are consistent with Thompson and colleagues’ (2011) claims, and provide further support for their suggestion that answer fluency is the critical variable in determining FORs. All data, scripts and materials can be found at https://osf.io/f48az/