Biology subjects

de Gardelle, V.

Publications and source records attributed to de Gardelle, V..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

The Confidence-Noise Confidence-Boost (CNCB) model of confidence rating data

Over the last decade, different approaches have been proposed to interpret confidence rating judgments obtained after perceptual decisions. One very popular approach is to compute meta-d which is a global measure of the sensibility to discriminate the confidence rating distributions for correct and incorrect perceptual decisions. Here, we propose a generative model of confidence based on two main parameters, confidence noise and confidence boost, that we call CNCB model. Confidence noise impairs confidence judgements above and beyond how sensory noise affects perceptual sensitivity. The confidence boost parameter reflects whether confidence uses the same information that was used for perceptual decisions, or some new information. This CNCB model offers a principled way to estimate a confidence efficiency measure that is a theory-driven alternative to the popular M-ratio. We then describe two scenarios to estimate the confidence boost parameter, one where the experiment uses more than two confidence levels, the other where the experiment uses more than two stimulus strengths. We also extend the model to continuous confidence ratings and describe how a non-linear mapping can be estimated between objective and subjective confidence probabilities. Altogether, the CNCB model should help interpret confidence rating data at a deeper level. This manuscript is accompanied by a toolbox that will allow researchers to estimate all the parameters of the CNCB model in confidence ratings datasets. Some examples of re-analyses of previous datasets are provided in the Appendix. Author SummaryAfter each perceptual decision, humans have the ability to rate how confident they are that their decision is correct. While there is a growing number of models that attempt to explain how confidence judgments are built, there are very few objective measures of the sensitivity of these confidence judgments. We offer here a measure of confidence efficiency whose interpretation is simple. It takes a value of zero when participants are unable to evaluate the validity of their perceptual decision, a value of one when participants use the same information for their perceptual decision and their confidence judgment, and a value larger than one when participants use information for their confidence judgment that was not used for their perceptual decision. This measure of confidence efficiency is based on a generative model called CNCB that has two main parameters, confidence noise and confidence boost. These parameters again have a simple interpretation, and we show under which circumstances they can be estimated on their own. Finally, we extend the model to continuous confidence ratings.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Social steerability modulates perceptual biases

Verbal hints can bias perceptual decision-making, even when the information they provide is false. Whether individuals may be more or less susceptible to such perceptual influences, however, remains unclear. We asked naive participants to indicate the dominant color in a series of stimuli, after giving them a false statement about which color would likely dominate. As anticipated, this statement biased participants perception of the dominant color, as shown by a correlated shift of their perceptual decisions, confidence judgments and response times. Crucially, this perceptual bias was more pronounced in participants with higher levels of susceptibility to social influence, as measured by a standard suggestibility scale. Together, these results indicate that even without much apparatus, simple verbal hints can affect our perceptual reality, and that social steerability can determine how much they do so. Susceptibility to suggestion might thus be considered an integral part of perceptual processing. Statement of relevanceAt a time when fake news soar, understanding the role that simple verbal descriptions play in how we perceive the world around us is paramount. Extensive research has shown that perception is permeable to well-orchestrated manipulation. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the perceptual impact of false information when the latter is imparted simply and straightforwardly, through short verbal hints and instructions. Here we show that even a single sentence suffices to bias perceptual decision-making, and that critically, this bias varies across individuals as a function of susceptibility to social influence. Considering how here perception was biased by a single, plain sentence, we argue that researchers, communicators and policy-makers should pay careful attention to the role that social suggestibility plays in how we build our perceptual reality.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

When temporal attention lacks confidence

Accurate decision-making requires estimating the uncertainty of perceptual events. Temporal attention is known to enhance the selection of a stimulus at a relevant time, but how does this selective process affect a decisions confidence? Here, we adapted an \"Attentional blink\" paradigm to investigate the effect of temporal attention on confidence judgments. In a RSVP stream of letters, two targets were cued to induce two successive attentional episodes. We found that the confidence ratings given to an item systematically followed the probability with which this item was reported. This coupling made confidence oblivious to selection delays usually observed when the two targets were separated by long intervals (249ms to 747ms). In particular, during this period, confidence was higher for more delayed item selection. One exception to this relationship between confidence and temporal selection was found when the second target appeared soon after (83ms) the first attentional episode. Here, a strong under-confidence bias was observed. Importantly, however, this early confidence bias did not impact confidence sensitivity in discriminating correct and erroneous responses. These results suggest that temporal attention and confidence can operate at different time scales, a difference which seems to reflect high-level heuristic biases rather than segregated processes for decision and confidence evidence.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Confidence as a priority signal

When dealing with multiple tasks, we often find ourselves in the problem of establishing the order in which to tackle them. Here we asked whether confidence, the subjective feeling in the accuracy of our decisions, plays an active role in this ordering problem. In a series of experiments, we show that confidence acts as a priority signal when ordering responses about tasks already completed, or ordering tasks that are to be made. In experiments 1-3, participants were engaged in a dual task and categorized perceptual stimuli along two dimensions. We found that they tended to give first the decision in which they were more confident. We also prove that confidence drives prioritization above and beyond task difficulty or response accuracy, and we discard alternative interpretations in terms of response availability or task demands. In experiments 4-6, we show that when participants have to select which of two sets of trials they want to perform first, they engage first in the set associated with higher confidence, and we extend this finding to situations involving non-perceptual (mental calculation) decisions. Our results thus support the role of confidence as a priority signal, thereby demonstrating a new way in which it regulates human behavior.\n\nHighlightsO_LIWe show that when having to decide the order in which to approach two tasks, humans prefer to start with the one they feel more confident in.\nC_LIO_LIThis holds both when deciding in which order to report two already completed tasks, and when deciding the order in which to tackle two tasks yet to complete. Our results are replicated in perceptual and non-perceptual situations.\nC_LIO_LIThe role of confidence on prioritization cannot be reduced to that of task difficulty or response accuracy.\nC_LIO_LIOur findings demonstrate a new way in which confidence regulates human behavior.\nC_LI

neuroscience↗