Effects of training on metacognition in visual perception

• Main Author: Lim, Jia Yu
• Other Authors: Alan Lee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Consciousness and cognition
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/65573
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Perception refers to neural processes that allow us to obtain information about the physical world. Metacognition is the ability to make judgments about one’s own perception. Research has shown that perception and metacognition are two closely related but different abilities. Studies in neuroscience have identified different neural correlates associated with engagement in both orders of perception. In psychophysics, perceptual performance has been found to improve with training, but whether such improvement can be transferred is equivocal. Most importantly, while perception and metacognition are closely related, effects of training on metacognition have not yet been demonstrated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of training on metacognitive sensitivity in visual discrimination. Perceptual learning was used as a behavioural training paradigm to study improvements in perceptual discriminability and metacognitive sensitivity. Participants in the present study (n = 8; undergraduates, six females) were trained in a direction-discrimination task on visual motion stimuli. Contrary to past findings, there was no significant improvement in perceptual performance. However, it was found that metacognitive sensitivity improved on the trained motion direction. Such improvement was specific to the trained motion direction, where no transfer of metacognitive learning was found in the untrained motion direction. Metacognitive bias was also found to be more positive after training, suggesting that learning leads to increase in overconfidence. Findings from the present study suggest that it is possible to train individuals to improve in metacognition, and have implications in formalizing training or learning protocols in the various applied disciplines, such as education.