Performance Feedback Triggers Liberal Detection and Perceptual Confidence Biases in Early Childhood: Implications for metacognitive training

Metacognition allows us to monitor our own mental processes and the quality of our decisions in order to promote adaptive behavior and learning across different domains. Despite its potential, the role of metacognition in children—who often exhibit confidence biases that hinder learning—has yet to be systematically evaluated. This study aimed to improve confidence judgments in 7-year-old children by means of performance feedback. Two groups of children performed a multi-letter array recognition task: one group received feedback during the task whereas the other group did not (N=24 each, 832 trials per participant). Both groups of participants were matched on their reading performance and non verbal IQ. Surprisingly, feedback led to more liberal detection criteria in the letter task, faster choice latencies, and increased confidence biases. Simulations from a drift diffusion model showed that the confidence increase in the feedback group was best explained by a decrease in response latencies, originating from a reduction in non-decision time. Thus, providing children with performance feedback may speed up their responses which in turn boosts their feeling of confidence. This study underscores the complexity of using performance feedback to enhance metacognitive monitoring in children. We highlight the need for nuanced protocols to train metacognition that bypass the influence of children's inherent confidence biases and discuss potential research directions in this regard.