Action planning modulates perceptual confidence through action monitoring processes

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Metacognition models traditionally link perceptual confidence to sensory information quality.
• Emerging theories suggest motor signals also play a role in confidence judgments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how motor planning of perceptual responses impacts decision confidence.
• To differentiate between the 'fluency hypothesis' and the 'monitoring hypothesis' of confidence.

Main Methods:

• Three preregistered experiments involving stimulus orientation reporting and confidence ratings.
• Introduction of cue-induced action planning (congruent vs. incongruent with response).
• Electroencephalography (EEG) recorded in the third experiment to analyze neural activity.

Main Results:

• Participants reported higher confidence when preparing spatially incongruent actions compared to congruent actions.
• Response accuracy did not influence this confidence difference.
• EEG data showed increased early attentional resource engagement (P2 amplitude) and modulation of post-response potentials (Pz) with incongruent action planning.

Conclusions:

• Findings support the 'monitoring hypothesis,' indicating that increased action monitoring during response selection enhances decision confidence.
• Motor planning and action monitoring are crucial components of metacognitive judgments.
• This research provides neural evidence for the role of action monitoring in confidence assessment.