Metacognitive errors in change detection: missing the gap between lab and life.

Full Abstract

Studies of change detection suggest that people tend to overestimate their ability to detect visual changes. In a recent laboratory study of change detection and human intention, Beck et al., found that individuals have an inadequate understanding that intention can improve change detection performance and that its importance increases with scene complexity. We note that these findings may be specific to unfamiliar situations such as those generated routinely in studies of change detection. In two questionnaire studies, we demonstrate that when participants consider real world scenarios such as driving, people are well aware that the intention to detect changes improves detection performance, especially in complex scenes. We suggest several reasons why change detection findings like Beck et al.'s do not generalize to real world situations. More broadly, we suggest a possible way to bridge the gap between lab and life.

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Author information

Author/s: Smilek, Daniel (D); Eastwood, John D (JD); Reynolds, Michael G (MG); Kingstone, Alan (A);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comment; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Consciousness and cognition (Conscious Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Mar; vol 16 (issue 1) : pp 52-7; discussion 58-62

Dates: Created 2006/12/18; Completed 2007/04/20; Revised 2008/11/21;

PMID: 16707263, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentOn: Conscious Cogn. 2007 Mar;16(1):31-51. (PMID: 16531072)

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