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Published on: January 31, 2017
People's hypercorrection of high-confidence errors: did they know it all along?
1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. jm348@columbia.edu
Summary
People often claim they "knew it all along" after receiving feedback on errors. This study confirms that high-confidence errors are indeed remembered better, supporting the hypercorrection effect.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory and Learning
Background:
- The hypercorrection effect describes how high-confidence errors are corrected more easily than low-confidence errors.
- The "knew it all along" phenomenon is a common explanation for this effect, but its validity has been debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the validity of the "knew it all along" explanation for the hypercorrection effect.
- To determine if individuals genuinely possessed prior knowledge of correct answers for high-confidence errors.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Assessed participants' claims of prior knowledge after receiving feedback on errors.
- Experiments 2 & 3: Utilized second-guess tests, free recall, and cued recall (including scaffolded feedback) to assess actual knowledge of correct answers.
Main Results:
- Participants were more likely to claim they "knew it all along" for high-confidence errors.
- High-confidence errors were more likely to be correctly answered in subsequent tests and recall tasks.
- Scaffolded feedback revealed that participants needed fewer prompts to recall correct answers for high-confidence errors.
Conclusions:
- The "knew it all along" claims are largely accurate, reflecting genuine prior knowledge.
- This pre-existing knowledge facilitates the easier correction of high-confidence errors, supporting the hypercorrection effect.
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