The persistence of the fluency-confidence association in problem solving.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Making
• Human Problem Solving

Background:

• Confidence judgments are influenced by cognitive fluency.
• Response latency, a measure of fluency, often correlates inversely with accuracy and confidence.
• The relationship between latency and confidence independent of accuracy needs further investigation in problem-solving contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the independent association between response latency and confidence in problem-solving tasks.
• To investigate how the predictive validity of latency for accuracy influences the latency-confidence link.
• To explore this relationship across ecologically valid tasks with varying latency-accuracy correlations.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted using problem-solving tasks.
• Experiment 1 used misleading problems in open-ended and multiple-choice formats.
• Experiment 2 used non-misleading problems, analyzing correct and incorrect solutions separately.

Main Results:

• In open-ended formats with misleading problems, latency did not predict accuracy.
• Latency predicted accuracy better in multiple-choice formats and with non-misleading problems.
• Confidence was consistently higher for faster responses, irrespective of latency's accuracy-predictive validity.

Conclusions:

• Confidence in problem-solving is persistently sensitive to response latency, even when latency is not a valid predictor of accuracy.
• The reliability of the latency-confidence association depends on the task's specific latency-accuracy relationship.
• Findings highlight the metacognitive influence of processing fluency on confidence judgments.