The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory

Abstract Researchers use a wide range of confidence scales when measuring the relationship between confidence and accuracy in reports from memory, with the highest number usually representing the greatest confidence (e.g., 4-point, 20-point, and 100-point scales). The assumption seems to be that the...

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Main Authors: Eylul Tekin, Henry L. Roediger
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2017-12-01
Series:Cognitive Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41235-017-0086-z
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spelling doaj-f80aa29d175c448b82a04475a6cbf8ae2020-11-24T23:29:37ZengSpringerOpenCognitive Research2365-74642017-12-012111310.1186/s41235-017-0086-zThe range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memoryEylul Tekin0Henry L. Roediger1Psychology Building, Campus Box 1125Washington University in St. LouisAbstract Researchers use a wide range of confidence scales when measuring the relationship between confidence and accuracy in reports from memory, with the highest number usually representing the greatest confidence (e.g., 4-point, 20-point, and 100-point scales). The assumption seems to be that the range of the scale has little bearing on the confidence-accuracy relationship. In two old/new recognition experiments, we directly investigated this assumption using word lists (Experiment 1) and faces (Experiment 2) by employing 4-, 5-, 20-, and 100-point scales. Using confidence-accuracy characteristic (CAC) plots, we asked whether confidence ratings would yield similar CAC plots, indicating comparability in use of the scales. For the comparisons, we divided 100-point and 20-point scales into bins of either four or five and asked, for example, whether confidence ratings of 4, 16–20, and 76–100 would yield similar values. The results show that, for both types of material, the different scales yield similar CAC plots. Notably, when subjects express high confidence, regardless of which scale they use, they are likely to be very accurate (even though they studied 100 words and 50 faces in each list in 2 experiments). The scales seem convertible from one to the other, and choice of scale range probably does not affect research into the relationship between confidence and accuracy. High confidence indicates high accuracy in recognition in the present experiments.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41235-017-0086-zConfidence-accuracy relationshipConfidence scalesMetacognition
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Eylul Tekin
Henry L. Roediger
spellingShingle Eylul Tekin
Henry L. Roediger
The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
Cognitive Research
Confidence-accuracy relationship
Confidence scales
Metacognition
author_facet Eylul Tekin
Henry L. Roediger
author_sort Eylul Tekin
title The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
title_short The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
title_full The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
title_fullStr The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
title_full_unstemmed The range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
title_sort range of confidence scales does not affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy in recognition memory
publisher SpringerOpen
series Cognitive Research
issn 2365-7464
publishDate 2017-12-01
description Abstract Researchers use a wide range of confidence scales when measuring the relationship between confidence and accuracy in reports from memory, with the highest number usually representing the greatest confidence (e.g., 4-point, 20-point, and 100-point scales). The assumption seems to be that the range of the scale has little bearing on the confidence-accuracy relationship. In two old/new recognition experiments, we directly investigated this assumption using word lists (Experiment 1) and faces (Experiment 2) by employing 4-, 5-, 20-, and 100-point scales. Using confidence-accuracy characteristic (CAC) plots, we asked whether confidence ratings would yield similar CAC plots, indicating comparability in use of the scales. For the comparisons, we divided 100-point and 20-point scales into bins of either four or five and asked, for example, whether confidence ratings of 4, 16–20, and 76–100 would yield similar values. The results show that, for both types of material, the different scales yield similar CAC plots. Notably, when subjects express high confidence, regardless of which scale they use, they are likely to be very accurate (even though they studied 100 words and 50 faces in each list in 2 experiments). The scales seem convertible from one to the other, and choice of scale range probably does not affect research into the relationship between confidence and accuracy. High confidence indicates high accuracy in recognition in the present experiments.
topic Confidence-accuracy relationship
Confidence scales
Metacognition
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41235-017-0086-z
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