Our brains know when we are right

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-04 09:01

Australia; QLD

When we think we are right about something we feel confident, the more right we think we are the more confident we feel, but how do we know when we’re right? University of Queensland neuroscientists have tackled this question by undermining people's confidence in a visual task without actually impacting their performance on a task. The researchers found that rather than confidence and accuracy relying on different types of information, people just needed more of the same type of information to feel confident.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

An observer model of tilt perception, sensitivity and confidence
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

When people make decisions, our brains generate feelings of confidence. These are typically accurate. So how do we know when we’re right? University of Queensland Neuroscientists tackled this question by creating a rare situation, selectively undermining confidence without impacting performance. Previously, it was thought this must mean that decisions and confidence rely on different types of information. But these researchers showed that people just needed more of the same type of information to feel confident. So, our brains know when we’re right because they know how much information has been encoded, and this is turned into a feeling of confidence.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Queensland

Funder: This research was supported by an ARC Discovery Project grant no. DP200102227 awarded to D.H.A. and A.J.

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