Metacognitive asymmetries in visual perception.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Visual Perception
• Metacognition

Background:

• Representing the absence of objects is psychologically demanding, often resulting in slower responses, reduced confidence, and lower metacognitive sensitivity compared to detecting presence.
• The precise definition of stimulus absence and its cognitive underpinnings remain areas of active research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether processing asymmetries observed for object absence extend to absences defined by stimulus features or expectation violations.
• To test the hypothesis that presence-absence processing differences stem from a default reasoning mode, assuming absence unless evidence suggests otherwise.

Main Methods:

• A Registered Report methodology was employed with pre-registered hypotheses.
• Six experiments utilized six pairs of stimuli, varying in the presence or absence of distinguishing features or expected defaults.
• Response times, confidence ratings, and metacognitive sensitivity were measured.

Main Results:

• The absence of local and global stimulus features led to slower and less confident responses, mirroring findings for entire stimulus absences.
• Contrary to predictions, the presence or absence of a local feature did not significantly impact metacognitive sensitivity.
• Metacognitive sensitivity remained stable regardless of feature presence or absence.

Conclusions:

• The findings challenge the proposed link between metacognitive asymmetry in detection and default reasoning.
• Results support a low-level visual origin for metacognitive asymmetries related to the presence and absence of stimuli and features.
• Absence detection, even at the feature level, imposes a cognitive load impacting speed and confidence but not necessarily self-monitoring accuracy.