| Most theories predict that high-confidence responses, including the high-confidence errors, are the strongest responses, and hence should be overwritten only with great difficulty. In contrast to this prediction, Experiment 1 demonstrated that, when feedback is given, erroneous responses to general information questions endorsed as correct with high-confidence were more likely than low-confidence errors to be corrected. This effect is called the hypercorrection effect. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated the hypothesis that feedback to a high-confidence error creates a "metamemory mismatch" and captures more attention than does the feedback to a low-confidence error, and that this enhanced attentional capture leads to better memory. In both experiments this hypothesis was supported. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated a domain familiarity explanation for the hypercorrection effect, and event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the neural substrates of both this domain familiarity and the attentional account of the hypercorrection effect. Presentation of negative, but not positive, feedback about the accuracy of one's response elicited a fronto-central negativity (ERN). A fronto-central positivity (P3/P3a) was larger in conditions of high metamemory mismatch than in conditions of low metamemory mismatch. For errors, amplitude of the P3/P3a was correlated with correction on an immediate retest. Thus, to the extent that the P3/P3a indexes an orienting response, this response appears to facilitate initial encoding processes, but does not play a key role in memory consolidation. In contrast, a broad, inferior-temporal negativity occurring 300--600 ms after presentation of the correct answer was sensitive to subsequent memory performance at both immediate and delayed retests, but only for answers containing familiar semantic information. This negativity may reflect processes involved in the formation of an association between the question and pre-existing semantic information. Experiment 6 used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to localize neural correlates of metamemory mismatch and subsequent memory. The anterior cingulate cortex, medial frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were all activated more for feedback to high-confidence errors than they were for low-confidence errors. For errors, activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus was predictive of retest accuracy. |
