Self-associated stimuli do not show a metacognitive advantage

A range of studies have demonstrated that self-related stimuli can be processed preferentially when compared to stimuli that are not self-related. This means that they may be detected more easily or processed more quickly, depending upon the task type. Beyond these primary judgements, we can also ask about secondary reflection. Such metacognitive processes allow us to appraise our own behaviours. The question then arises whether or not a self-advantage will be seen in metacognitive judgements, like in primary judgements, or whether this self effect is missing in metacognition. To investigate this we used a self-association process to relate geometric stimuli to the self and to a friend. In the first experiment, these stimuli were used in a detection task where participants were also asked to rate their confidence about their detection responses. In the second experiment, we used the stimuli in a discrimination task where participants were again asked to rate their confidence levels. Metacognitive efficiency was compared between self- and friend-related stimuli. No self advantage for metacognition was observed in either task.