Author: Sarah Nicole Fletcher
Fletcher, Sarah Nicole, 2014 The Role of Recollection in the Confidence-Accuracy Relationship for Negative Decisions, Flinders University, School of Psychology
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When an individual makes a recognition decision, indicating whether they have seen something before or not, their confidence in that decision has been found to predict accuracy differently depending on the type of decision they make. Decisions indicating something has been seen before (positive decisions) consistently show a positive confidence-accuracy relationship, while decisions indicating that something is not recognised (negative decisions) show a weaker or absent relationship. Sarah's thesis investigated an explanation for this, based on the type of evidence individuals use for their decision. The theory tested was that when individuals base their decision more on recollected details about the item they saw, rather than how familiar or unfamiliar the present item is, the confidence-accuracy relationship would be stronger. Results showed that, as predicted, allowing decisions to be based on recollected information lead to stronger relationships between confidence and accuracy.
Keywords: recognition,recognition memory,confidence,recollection,familiarity
Subject: Psychology thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2014
School: School of Psychology
Supervisor: Nathan Weber