Metacognition in the Rationality Debate: Self-confidence and Its Calibration

Effective decision-making relies on both feelingconfident about the decision and realisticallyassessing its accuracy. This book presents theresults of several large-scale studies of test-takingsituations in which people stated their level ofconfidence in their answers. These judgments wereinternally stable and habitual across differenttypical and novel cognitive domains. Self-perceptionof the competency of the fundamental cognitiveabilities predicted confidence levels; these levelswere compared with the actual results, indexing thequality of Self-monitoring processes. Errors inconfidence ratings were consistent, habitual, andlinked with particular heuristic modes of thinking;these errors reflected the irrationality that plaguesmetacognitive processes. By determining the status ofconfidence judgments and their calibration within thecognitive/metacognitive taxonomy and theirpsychological determinates, this book demonstratesthat both phenomena reside at themetacognitive/rational level. This book will bevaluable to psychology and education professionals,and to anyone interested in understandingdecision-making processes and their underlyingintrapersonal factors.