Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 12, 2025

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
Published on: July 16, 2015
Identification and disruption of a neural mechanism for accumulating prospective metacognitive information prior to
Kentaro Miyamoto1, Nadescha Trudel1, Kevin Kamermans1
1Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Department of Experimental Psychology, Tinsley Building, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
Abstract:
More than one type of probability must be considered when making decisions. It is as necessary to know one's chance of performing choices correctly as it is to know the chances that desired outcomes will follow choices. We refer to these two choice contingencies as internal and external probability. Neural activity across many frontal and parietal areas reflected internal and external probabilities in a similar manner during decision-making. However, neural recording and manipulation approaches suggest that one area, the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (alPFC), is highly specialized for making prospective, metacognitive judgments on the basis of internal probability; it is essential for knowing which decisions to tackle, given its assessment of how well they will be performed. Its activity predicted prospective metacognitive judgments, and individual variation in activity predicted individual variation in metacognitive judgments. Its disruption altered metacognitive judgments, leading participants to tackle perceptual decisions they were likely to fail.
More Related Videos
05:48The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
Published on: June 12, 2020
09:26Disruption of Frontal Lobe Neural Synchrony During Cognitive Control by Alcohol Intoxication
Published on: February 6, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Metacognition
Reason and Intuition
Decision Making
Automatic decision-making is fast, intuitive, and relies on gut feelings...
Role of Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex in Memory
Information Processing Approach
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process...