IMPACT OF FEEDBACK ON PERCEPTION AND METACOGNITION 1 The impact of feedback on perceptual decision making and metacognition: Reduction in bias but no change in sensitivity Nadia Haddara & Dobromir Rahnev School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA Keywords: perceptual decision maKing, metacognition, criterion, bias, sensitivity, confidence calibration. Corresponding authors: Nadia Haddara Dobromir Rahnev Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology 831 Marietta St NW 654 Cherry St NW Atlanta, GA 30318 Atlanta, GA 30332
[email protected] [email protected] IMPACT OF FEEDBACK ON PERCEPTION AND METACOGNITION 2 Abstract It is widely believed that feedbacK improves behavior but the mechanisms behind this improvement remain unclear. Different theories postulate that feedback has either a direct effect on performance through automatic reinforcement mechanisms or only an indirect effect mediated by a deliberate change in strategy. To adjudicate between these competing accounts, we performed two large studies (total N = 518) with approximately half the subjects receiving trial-by-trial feedback on a perceptual task, while the other half not receiving any feedback. We found that feedback had no effect on either perceptual or metacognitive sensitivity even after seven days of training. On the other hand, feedback significantly affected subjects’ response strategies by reducing response bias and improving confidence calibration. These results strongly support the view that feedback does not improve behavior through direct reinforcement mechanisms but that its beneficial effects stem from allowing people to adjust their strategies for performing the tasK. Word count: 149/150 IMPACT OF FEEDBACK ON PERCEPTION AND METACOGNITION 3 Statement of relevance How can we help people improve their performance? It is often thought that across a variety of domains from education to worK settings to sports achievements to various cognitive tasks, performance can be improved by simply providing feedbacK.