Does our self-awareness change as we grow older?

What is defined as the trial-by-trial relationship between confidence and performance?

Metacognitive sensitivity, which is high when confidence is elevated during correct trials and low during incorrect ones.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is metacognitive efficiency, and how is it mathematically represented?

Metacognitive efficiency is metacognitive sensitivity relative to task performance, quantified as the ratio meta-d' / d'.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What does the term metacognitive bias refer to?

The general tendency of an individual to report higher or lower confidence overall, regardless of their performance accuracy.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How is local metacognition distinguished from global metacognition?

Local metacognition involves moment-to-moment appraisals of task performance, whereas global metacognition involves long-run self-estimates of overall ability on a task.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What was the purpose of developing the gamified suite of tasks called Metacogmission?

It was designed to keep participants engaged and motivated during performance-controlled memory and perceptual tasks while collecting trial-by-trial confidence judgments.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What primary method was used to control task performance across different participants in both domains?

A 2-down-1-up adaptive staircase procedure was employed to dynamically adjust task difficulty.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How was short-term memory tested in the Metacogmission suite?

Participants memorized a set for 2 seconds and then completed a two-alternative forced-choice (2-AFC) to identify the familiar stimulus over a distractor.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How was perceptual discrimination tested in the study?

Participants viewed an array of identical red and blue shapes for 3 seconds and judged which color was more numerous.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How many participants were recruited, and how were they grouped by age?

There were 304 analyzed participants split into 6 age-stratified groups of 50, spanning from 18 years to over 68 years.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What type of scale was used to collect retrospective confidence judgments after each trial?

A horizontal sliding scale with ends labeled 'complete guess' and 'absolutely certain,' generating a quasi-continuous 201-point scale.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How did the study measure global metacognition?

By asking participants to rate their expected overall performance on an 11-point Likert scale before and after the tasks, compared to other participants.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What did the hierarchical multiple regression reveal about local metacognitive efficiency across the lifespan?

There was no significant effect of age on local metacognitive efficiency in either the memory or perceptual domains.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How did age impact the objective task performance and staircased difficulty levels?

Linear regressions revealed no significant effect of age on objective accuracy or the difficulty levels achieved on the staircase.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What was the relationship between age and local metacognitive bias in this study?

There was a significant negative relationship, showing that average confidence ratings decreased as age increased.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How did age affect global self-performance estimates (SPEs)?

Increasing age had a negative effect on both pre-task and post-task global estimates across both the memory and perceptual domains.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is the cross-domain correlation of local metacognitive efficiency across the entire sample?

There was a strong, positive cross-task correlation of approximately 0.60, demonstrating significant domain-generality.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How does the domain-generality of metacognitive efficiency change with age?

It remains stable across the adult lifespan, showing robust positive cross-task correlations in almost all age groups.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What was found regarding the domain-generality of local metacognitive bias?

There was a strong and significant positive correlation of 0.81 in average confidence levels between perception and memory.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

Did global self-performance estimates show domain-generality?

Yes, there was a strong positive linear relationship between global estimates across both domains.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How did task performance influence the post-task updating of global self-performance estimates?

Participants who achieved higher task difficulty levels during the experiment were more likely to increase their post-task global estimates.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

Did older adults restrict their use of the confidence scale compared to younger adults?

No, there was no relationship between age and the standard deviation of confidence ratings, indicating they utilized the full scale range.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

Why might we theoretically expect a decline in local metacognition in older age?

Because networks in the prefrontal and parietal cortex, which support confidence estimates, typically undergo age-related atrophy.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is one reason prior studies might have found impaired visual metacognitive efficiency in older adults?

Prior studies often failed to match younger and older groups for visual performance, meaning age-related differences in vision confounded metacognition estimates.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What qualitative benefit did the gamified storyline provide to the study?

It increased attraction and engagement, particularly for demographics unfamiliar with cognitive science experiments, such as children and older adults.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is the benefit of performing multiple regressions directly inside the hierarchical HMeta-d model?

It leverages hierarchical estimation power while avoiding the issue of parameter values shrinking artificially towards the group mean.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

Why was a short-term memory task chosen, according to the authors?

Short-term memory tasks (unlike working memory) are generally spared during normal aging, particularly without interference.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

Instead of older adults being underconfident, what is an alternative explanation for the age-related drop in confidence?

Younger adults may be excessively overconfident, and confidence estimates may recalibrate to become more accurate with age.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What social factor could explain why older adults evaluate their performance more negatively?

Societal stereotypes and public health messaging surrounding age-related cognitive decline.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How can age-stratified metacognitive data be useful outside of normal aging research?

It provides a valuable baseline or benchmark to assess metacognitive dysfunction in clinical and neurodegenerative populations.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is a major limitation of recruiting older adults via an online platform like Prolific?

It likely selects for highly tech-literate older adults, who may be higher-functioning and thus underestimate age differences in metacognitive efficiency.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is an advantage of web-based convenience sampling on Prolific over traditional lab-based studies?

It offers better diversity across ethnicity, employment status, and socioeconomic background than typical student samples.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How is prospective metamemory defined?

The monitoring of memory processes during the acquisition or encoding phase, such as judgments of learning (JOLs).

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

How did task difficulty relate to metacognitive efficiency in the memory task?

There was a negative relationship, meaning that higher memory task difficulty was associated with lower metacognitive efficiency.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What clinical outcomes could result from persistent underestimation of one's cognitive abilities?

It can eventually escalate into health anxiety, subjective cognitive decline, or functional cognitive disorders.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified

What is the core definition of metacognition?

The capacity to reflect on and control other cognitive processes, commonly known as thinking about thinking.

Source: Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance · DOI · quote verified