Confidence as a Priority Signal

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Decision Science

Background:

• Humans frequently encounter multiple tasks requiring sequential decision-making.
• The mechanisms governing task prioritization are not fully understood.
• Confidence, a subjective assessment of decision accuracy, may play a role.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether confidence serves as a priority signal in task ordering.
• To determine if confidence influences the sequence of completed or yet-to-be-completed tasks.
• To explore the generalizability of confidence as a priority signal across different decision types.

Main Methods:

• Conducted multiple experiments with varying sample sizes (N=16-105), including a preregistered replication.
• Participants performed perceptual categorization tasks and mental calculation tasks.
• Assessed decision confidence and task ordering preferences.

Main Results:

• Participants prioritized decisions associated with higher confidence when ordering responses.
• A slight bias towards choosing tasks with higher confidence was observed.
• These effects were independent of task difficulty, accuracy, or implicit demands.

Conclusions:

• Confidence functions as a crucial priority signal in regulating task order.
• This highlights a novel mechanism through which confidence influences human behavior.
• Findings extend beyond perceptual tasks to nonperceptual decision-making.