Projet ANR-07-BLAN-0024 – Confidence : How subjective confidence modulates performance and belief: conceptual, developmental, and psychopathological issues
Programme : Blanc (BLANC) 2007
Année de financement : 2007
Coordinateur du projet : CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE - DELEGATION REGIONALE ILE-DE-FRANCE SECTEUR PARIS B (CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE - DELEGATION REGIONALE ILE-DE-FRANCE SECTEUR PARIS B)
Partenaires : Centre national de la recherche scientifique; Centre national de la recherche scientifique; Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Montant : 170000.0 euros
Date de début : 2007
Durée : 36 mois
Résumé : Subjective confidence in the correctness of a proposition and other cognate noetic feelings are kinds of metacognitive judgements. Subjective confidence has also much in common with certain forms of affective responses and may be thought to represent a blend between affective and cognitive processes. These feelings in turn are thought to influence and regulate cognitive processing. The study of subjective confidence is therefore at the intersection of three currently very active fields of research: metacognition, emotion and executive function research. Yet, cross talk between these research programmes has been limited. We think their respective insights can be fruitfully combined and extended. -  Our objective is to develop and test a theoretical framework integrating these insights and fostering a better understanding of the interplay between the cognitive and affective dimensions of subjective confidence, its role in the regulation of cognitive processes, and its impairments in certain psychopathological conditions. -  This project centrally involves philosophical, psychological and clinical dimensions. The study of subjective confidence and its relation with metacognition, executive functioning and emotions raises a number of important issues in philosophy of mind, concerning the reliability of feelings of confidence, the relation between consciousness and behavior, the relation between metacognition and metarepresentational abilities, and the motivational role of noetic feelings. These conceptual issues are addressed in the first section of this project. -  In the second section, we investigate subjective confidence in healthy adults. In particular, we study the strategic use of uncertainty feelings and feelings of error in the reliable calibration of subjective confidence and actual performance. People are often more confident than accurate. Most theoretical accounts of overconfidence have focused on social cognitive mechanisms and neglected affective components. In the present project, we wish to gain a better understanding of the respective role of cognitive and affective factors in overconfidence. -  The study of subjective confidence is particularly salient in ontogenetic development and in pathologies that involve joint metacognitive, executive and emotional impairments, such as Asperger Syndrome and a variety of delusions. Studying stages of development as well as patterns of impairments is therefore a privileged way to probe and experimentally test a theoretical framework that articulates the affective and cognitive dimensions of noetic feelings and their role in the regulation of cognitive behavior. -  Most studies of metacognitive abilities in children rely on verbal tasks and report poor metacognitive skills in young children. However, the question whether preverbal children or infants possess partial metacognitive abilities as distinct from language mastery is still open. Verbal metacognition may occur late in human development while preverbal forms of metacognition, through monitoring of the feelings of confidence or uncertainty, may be present earlier. In the third section of this project, we investigate this issue using tasks relying on perceptual material (visual stimuli) with preschool children (3-5 years old). -  In the fourth section of the project, we investigate subjective confidence in adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS). In addition to disturbances in social and metacognitive functioning, several studies have provided consistent evidence of executive impairments in AS and autism. Individuals with AS syndrome are impaired in several tasks requiring the integration of emotion/affective contents and cognitive information. The study of error detection and performance monitoring in AS is therefore of particular interest for understanding the interplay of executive, metacognitive and emotion factors in defining the cognitive profile of AS subjects. -  In the fifth section of the project we study subjective