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CFIN guest talk: Michal Wierzchon

Dr. hab. Michal Wierzchon from Jagiellonian University in Krakow gives talk on metacognitive awareness in perception and memory.

23.02.2016 | Hella Kastbjerg

Dato tor 25 feb
Tid 14:00 15:00
Sted Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, Building 10G, meeting room 4th floor

Title:

How do we know what we see and remember? Metacognitive awareness in perception and memory

Abstract:

How do we know what we are aware of? Does anything beside the stimulus-related evidence influence our metacognitive awareness? Here, I present a set of studies aiming to investigate this problem in the context of visual awareness and awareness of memory content. I will start with presenting the results of studies were metacognitive awareness was assessed either before, or after decisions in a simple visual identification task. The results showed that awareness ratings strongly predicted identification accuracy, but this effect was weaker when awareness rating preceded identification response. I will propose a few possible interpretations of those results proposing that metacognitive accuracy may differ either due to the amount of time that participants had to estimate their metacognitive awareness, or of the influence of the decision itself on awareness rating. I will then present further studies that aimed to test those possible interpretations. In the second part of the talk I will present results we have obtained in context of the memory tasks. Similarly to the results of perceptual studies the task accuracy always correlated with metacognitive awareness judgement but this relationship was weaker when metacognition was assessed before the decision. Finally, I will argue that the cognitive mechanisms responsible for metacognitive awareness of both types of content might be closely related. I will interpret our findings in line with hierarchical theories of consciousness and decisional models. I will also present a preliminary version of the theoretical model investigating the cognitive mechanisms of metacognitive awareness.

All are welcome!

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