RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Confidence is predicted by pre- and post-choice decision signal dynamics
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.01.19.524702
DO 10.1101/2023.01.19.524702
A1 John P. Grogan
A1 Wouter Rys
A1 Simon P. Kelly
A1 Redmond G. O’Connell
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/20/2023.01.19.524702.abstract
AB It is well established that one’s confidence in a choice can be influenced by new evidence encountered after commitment has been reached, but the processes through which post-choice evidence is sampled remain unclear. To investigate this, we traced the pre- and post-choice dynamics of electrophysiological signatures of evidence accumulation (Centro-parietal Positivity, CPP) and motor preparation (mu/beta band) to determine their sensitivity to participants’ confidence in their perceptual discriminations. Pre-choice CPP amplitudes scaled with confidence both when confidence was reported simultaneously with choice, or when reported 1-second after the initial direction decision. When additional evidence was presented during the post-choice delay period, the CPP continued to evolve after the initial choice, with a more prolonged build-up on trials with lower confidence in the alternative that was finally endorsed, irrespective of whether this entailed a change-of-mind. Further investigation established that this pattern was accompanied by earlier post-choice CPP peak latency, earlier lateralisation of motor preparation signals toward the ultimately chosen response, and faster confidence reports when participants indicated high certainty that they had made a correct or incorrect initial choice. These observations are consistent with confidence-dependent stopping theories according to which post-choice evidence accumulation ceases when a criterion level of confidence in a choice alternative has been reached. Our findings have implications for current models of choice confidence, and predictions they may make about EEG signatures.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.