Metacognitive biases in anxiety-depression and compulsivity extend across perception and memory

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Metacognitive biases are common in mental health disorders such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• Transdiagnostic research presents conflicting findings on metacognition in OCD, showing overconfidence in perception versus underconfidence in memory.
• Reconciling these discrepancies is crucial for understanding metacognitive alterations in psychopathology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the domain-specific and hierarchical nature of metacognitive biases across different mental health dimensions.
• To differentiate metacognitive patterns associated with anxiety-depression and compulsivity.
• To explore the influence of global self-esteem and metacognitive hierarchy levels on these biases.

Main Methods:

• Employed a transdiagnostic individual differences approach with a general population sample (N = 327).
• Quantified metacognitive patterns across memory and perception domains.
• Analyzed associations between metacognitive biases, anxiety-depression, compulsivity, self-esteem, and metacognitive hierarchy levels.

Main Results:

• Underconfidence in metacognition was associated with anxiety-depression.
• Overconfidence in metacognition was associated with compulsivity.
• Both anxiety-depression and compulsivity were largely explained by global low self-esteem, but compulsivity showed specific alterations at local metacognitive levels.

Conclusions:

• Metacognitive alterations are domain-general across mental health dimensions.
• Distinct levels of the metacognitive hierarchy contribute differentially to specific mental health conditions.
• Findings support a nuanced understanding of metacognitive biases in psychopathology, moving beyond simple clinical category distinctions.