CONSIDERING THE KNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE - EFFECTS ON REALISM IN CONFIDENCEJUDGMENTS

In three experiments, the hypothesis was tested that the realism of su bjects' item-specific confidence judgements of their own answers to ge neral knowledge questions would be improved by making the subjects hee d content which might be expected to lower their confidence ratings. I n each experiment, all subjects answered knowledge questions and then rated their confidence in their chosen answer. Before each question, t he subjects in the experimental condition assessed the extent of their knowledge in a knowledge-area encompassing the knowledge question. Ex periments 1 and 2 differed only in the design of the knowledge-area as sessment scale. In Experiment 3, when making knowledge-area assessment s, the subjects were asked to find examples of knowledge they lacked i n the knowledge-area. Both Experiments 2 and 3 showed significantly im proved realism in the subjects' confidence judgements. An aggregate as sessment of the total number of questions believed to be answered corr ectly, given by the subjects at the end of Experiments 2 and 3, showed underconfidence in the experimental condition, particularly in Experi ment 3. The results support the idea that the content active in subjec ts' memory at the time when confidence judgements are made affects the ir realism. Furthermore, our results show that the realism of subjects ' item-specific confidence judgements can be improved without giving f eedback.