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Poster C in Poster Session C: Wednesday, August 5, 9:30 – 11:15 am, Kimmel Center, Shorin & Rosenthal Rooms

Dimensional Doubt is Selectively Associated with Metacognition for Non-Occurrences

Noam Sarna¹, Reuven Dar¹, Matan Mazor²; ¹Tel Aviv University, ²University of Oxford

Presenter: Noam Sarna

Episodic memory is typically studied as memory for things that happened. Yet everyday decisions often require the opposite: concluding that something did not occur. Inference about non-occurrences cannot draw on recollective experience; instead, it relies on the absence of a memory trace together with a metacognitive belief that an occurrence would have been remembered. As a result, distrust in one’s own cognition may disproportionately impair confidence when inferring that something did not happen. We tested this hypothesis in 460 participants who completed a recognition memory test with implicit and explicit measures of confidence. Dimensional doubt was selectively associated with underconfidence for “new” judgments across both explicit and implicit confidence measures, with no corresponding association for “old” judgments. These findings provide evidence that dimensional doubt is selectively associated with inference about non-occurrences.

Topic Area: Memory, Learning & Knowledge Structures