The accuracy of meta-metacognitive judgments: regulating the realism of confidence

Can people improve the realism of their confidence judgments about the correctness of their episodic memory reports by deselecting the least realistic judgments? An assumption of Koriat and Goldsmith's (Psychol Rev 103:490-517, 1996) model is that confidence judgments regulate the reporting of memory reports. We tested whether this assumption generalizes to the regulation of the realism (accuracy) of confidence judgments. In two experiments, 270 adults in separate conditions answered 50 recognition and recall questions about the contents of a just-seen video. After each answer, they made confidence judgments about the answer's correctness. In Experiment 1, the participants in the recognition conditions significantly increased their absolute bias when they excluded 15 questions. In Experiment 2, the participants in the recall condition significantly improved their calibration. The results indicate that recall, more than recognition, offers valid cues for participants to increase the realism of their report. However, the effects were small with only weak support for the conclusion that people have some ability to regulate the realism in their confidence judgments.     

Civic and Cosmopolitan Friendship

This article draws out two implications for cosmopolitan or global friendship from an examination of a recent work on civic friendship in the domestic sphere: (1) Insofar as it is the case that civic friendship, as defined by Schwarzenbach (On civic friendship: Including women in the state. Columbia University Press, New York, 2009) is necessary for justice in the state, it is also the case that the absence of global justice can be partially explained by the absence of what might be called cosmopolitan friendship. (2) If we consider the practicalities of civic friendship, we find that cosmopolitan friendship is an even more difficult and demanding project than we might have imagined.     

Child witnesses' metamemory realism

This study investigated the degree of realism in the confidence judgments of 11 to 12-year-olds (41 girls and 40 boys) of their answers to questions relating to a short film clip showing a kidnapping event. Four different confidence scales were used: a numeric scale, a picture scale, a line scale and a written scale. The results demonstrated that the children showed a high level of overconfidence in their memories. However, no significant differences between the four confidence scales were found. Weak gender differences were found in that the girls were slightly, but significantly, better calibrated than the boys. In addition, although both boys and girls overestimated the total number of memory questions they had answered correctly, the boys gave higher estimates compared with the girls. In brief, the results indicate that, at least in the context investigated, 11-12 year-old children's confidence in and estimations of their own event memory show poor realism (overconfidence and overestimation). A comparison with previous research on adults indicates that 11 to 12-year-old children show noticeably poorer realism.     

Sensitivity to Levels of Importance in the Logical Memory Subtest

The performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and neuropsychiatric patients was examined using the Logical Memory (LM) subtest of the WMS-R, utilizing a levels of importance methodology described by Haut et al. (1990). Although patient groups were matched for dementia severity, we found the expected differences between groups in terms of absolute level of performance. There was considerable variability, however, in the AD patients' performance. AD patients' recall and sensitivity to levels of importance depended on the story (Anna or Robert), and when the passages were recalled (immediate or delayed recalls). Results suggested that AD patients were able to utilize semantic information in their immediate recall, though this was dependent on individual story characteristics. AD patient's delayed recall was essentially absent. Thus, no conclusions could be drawn with respect to the level of importance factor. NP patient's recall performance was similar to patterns observed in other clinical samples for both immediate and delayed memory.     

The Effects of Delayed Report and Motive for Reporting on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

We examined whether the timing of the report and the victim's apparent motive for reporting influences women's and men's perceptions of sexual harassment. Undergraduates (153 women, 149 men) listened to 1 of 6 versions of audiotaped testimony of the victim and defendant. The report was filed either immediately or 18 months later, and motive either was presented as altruistic, retaliatory, or was not specified. Participants chose a verdict, rated the defendant's guilt, and rated the defendant and victim on several dimensions. Higher guilt ratings, more positive evaluations of the victim, and more negative evaluations of the defendant were associated with immediate reporting and an altruistic motive, although women weighed these factors more heavily than did men.     

Partner effects of Mexican cultural values: the couple and parenting relationships

In this investigation, the authors explored the impact of individuals' cultural values on their partners' relationship adjustment and perceptions of their parenting relationship. The authors examined Mexican cultural values of simpatía (i.e., harmonious interpersonal relationships) and respeto (i.e., respect for authority figures) using a sample of 50 Mexican-origin couples in southern Arizona. Congruent with their hypotheses, results supported the proposition that fathers' simpatía is positively associated with both relationship adjustment and the parenting relationship as reported by mothers, whereas fathers' respeto is negatively associated with both relationship adjustment and the parenting relationship as reported by mothers. However, the authors found little evidence of a contribution of mothers' cultural values to fathers' perceptions of either relationship adjustment or the parenting relationship. They interpret these findings to suggest that mothers' relationship adjustment and parenting relationship are more sensitive to and dependent on fathers' degree of traditional cultural values among Mexican-origin families.     

Personality and culture: a comparison of Francophones and Anglophones in Québec

The authors compared the personality characteristics of Québec Francophones (25 women, 25 men) and Anglophones (25 women, 25 men) aged 16-64 years. Each participant completed a French or English version of 3 personality inventories that measured (a) extraversion (2 scales), (b) neuroticism (2 scales), (c) psychoticism, (d) lying, (e) openness to experience, (f) conscientiousness, (g) agreeableness, (h) conservatism, and (i) altruism. Francophones scored higher than did Anglophones on psychoticism and on 1 measure of extraversion, and Anglophones scored higher than did Francophones on conservatism, but the 2 groups did not differ on the other personality traits. Men scored higher than did women on psychoticism, and women scored higher than did men on conscientiousness and agreeableness. Conservatism and altruism increased with age. The authors discuss the results in the context of cross-cultural theory and research on personality.