Positive and negative touch differentially modulate metacognitive memory judgements for emotional stimuli

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Touch is vital for environmental information and social interaction.
• Its influence on (meta)cognition remains largely unexplored.
• Understanding touch's cognitive effects is crucial for various applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how positive and negative touch modulate metacognitive memory decisions.
• To examine the effects of touch on memory recognition, confidence, and response bias.
• To differentiate the impact of valenced touch on cognitive processes.

Main Methods:

• Within-subject design with positive, negative, and no-touch conditions.
• Participants encoded emotionally valenced images.
• A Yes/No recognition task assessed memory-related decision components after a delay.

Main Results:

• Both positive and negative touch decreased overall confidence and slowed response times compared to no touch.
• Negative touch, but not positive touch, led to inappropriately lower confidence for correct recognitions.
• Response bias was less liberal across both positive and negative touch conditions.

Conclusions:

• Positive and negative touch differentially interact with metacognitive memory judgments.
• Touch significantly alters confidence and response time in memory tasks.
• Findings have implications for applied settings, including eyewitness testimony.