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The Confidence Database

Abstract

Understanding how people rate their confidence is critical for the characterization of a wide range of perceptual, memory, motor and cognitive processes. To enable the continued exploration of these processes, we created a large database of confidence studies spanning a broad set of paradigms, participant populations and fields of study. The data from each study are structured in a common, easy-to-use format that can be easily imported and analysed using multiple software packages. Each dataset is accompanied by an explanation regarding the nature of the collected data. At the time of publication, the Confidence Database (which is available at https://osf.io/s46pr/) contained 145 datasets with data from more than 8,700 participants and almost 4 million trials. The database will remain open for new submissions indefinitely and is expected to continue to grow. Here we show the usefulness of this large collection of datasets in four different analyses that provide precise estimations of several foundational confidence-related effects.

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Fig. 1: Datasets in the Confidence Database at the time of publication.
Fig. 2: Correlating confidence with choice and confidence RT.
Fig. 3: Serial dependence in confidence RT.
Fig. 4: The prevalence of estimates of negative metacognitive sensitivity.
Fig. 5: The use of confidence scales in perception and memory studies.

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Data availability

The Confidence Database is available at https://osf.io/s46pr/.

Code availability

Codes reproducing all analyses in this paper are available at https://osf.io/s46pr/.

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Acknowledgements

The organization of the Confidence Database was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under award number R56MH119189 to D.R. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

The Confidence Database was conceived and organized by D.R., who also drafted the paper. K. Desender, A.L.F.L. and D.R. performed the analyses. D.R., K. Davranche, A.L.F.L., W.T.A., D.A.-L., B.A., P.A., L.Y.A., F.B., J.W.B., I.B., D.P.B., T.F.B., J.C.-T., A.C., T.K.C., K.S.D., R.N.D., T.C.D., K.S.D., Y.A.D., N.F., K.F., E.F., T.G., R.M.G., V.d.G., S.G., N.H., M.H., T.-Y.H., X.H., I.I., M.J., J.K., M. Koculak, M. Konishi, C.K., P.D.K., S.C.K., M.L., K.M.L., C.M.L., L.L., B.M., A. Martin, S.M., J.M., A. Mazancieux, D.M.M., D.O., E.R.P., B.P., M.P., C.P., M.G.P., G.P., F.P., M. Rausch, S.R., G.R., M. Rouault, J. Sackur, S. Sadeghi, J. Samaha, T.X.F.S., M. Shekhar, M.T.S., M. Siedlecka, Z.S., C.S., D.S., S. Sun, J.J.A.v.B., S.W., C.T.W., G.W., M.W., X.X., Q.Y., J.Y., F.Z. and A.Z. contributed to the database. All of the contributors at the time of publication are listed as authors in alphabetical order except for the first three authors. All of the authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dobromir Rahnev.

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Rahnev, D., Desender, K., Lee, A.L.F. et al. The Confidence Database. Nat Hum Behav 4, 317–325 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0813-1

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