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. 2005 Oct;132(4):446-461.
doi: 10.3200/GENP.132.4.446-461.

Individual Differences in Metacognitive Responsiveness: Cognitive and Personality Correlates

David A Washburn  1 , J David Smith, Lauren A Taglialatela
Affiliations

Individual Differences in Metacognitive Responsiveness: Cognitive and Personality Correlates

David A Washburn et al. J Gen Psychol. 2005 Oct.

Abstract

Individuals differ not only in the ability to make decisions, but also in the degree to which they respond adaptively to uncertainty about those decisions. We examined how optimally 124 participants used an uncertain response on near-threshold trials of a psychophysical task. All participants showed overconfidence, but women tended to be more adaptive than men in responsiveness to uncertainty. Participants who responded to uncertainty most optimally exhibited more cognitive failures, fewer attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder symptoms, greater need for closure, better attention scanning skills, but larger effects of Stroop-task incongruity compared with participants who were least optimal in responsiveness to uncertainty. These data suggest that response competition might provide a mechanism for the cognitive experience of uncertainty.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Response selection as a function of normalized stimulus density. Mean proportion of responses to the S and the Box (target) on trials in which the participants attempted the primary task, and mean proportion of responses to the star (uncertain response).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Score on the 5-factor personality inventory, as a function of groups formed on the basis of optimality of responsiveness to uncertainty (ORU).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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