Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 1, 2025

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions
Published on: May 2, 2019
Confidence can be automatically integrated across two visual decisions
David Aguilar-Lleyda1, Mahiko Konishi2, Jérôme Sackur2
1Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne (CNRS and Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne).
Abstract:
Humans can estimate their confidence in making correct decisions, but these confidence judgments are biased by their other estimations, an effect known as confidence leak. However, it remains unclear whether this effect arises automatically. Here, we address this issue by having participants make two visual decisions and give confidence ratings for one or for both decisions within each trial. Using the well-known interaction between task difficulty and response accuracy as a proxy for confidence, we found that confidence ratings for one decision were greater when the other decision was also associated with greater confidence, even when the latter was not explicitly rated. For one of the two tasks, this confidence leak also occurred when participants knew in advance that no confidence rating would be required for the other task. Our results support the idea that confidence can be automatically integrated across decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Related Concept Videos
Visual System
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Decision Making
Automatic decision-making is fast, intuitive, and relies on gut feelings...
Multi-input and Multi-variable systems
In the absence of...
Decision Making: Traditional Method
First, a specific claim about the population parameter is decided based on the research question and is stated in a simple form. Further, an opposing statement to this claim is also stated. These statements can act as null and alternative hypotheses, out of which a null hypothesis would be a...
Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...

