The association between confidence and help seeking is weaker than the association between confidence and withholding answers¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3 · i2–i3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i3 Control sensitivity (within-participant gamma correlation between confidence and strategy use) was weaker in the help-seeking condition than in the don't-know condition in Experiment 2a, d = 1.45. → Monika Undorf 2021 q3 i2 In Experiment 2b with monetary incentives, control sensitivity was again weaker for help seeking than for withholding, d = 0.60. → Monika Undorf 2021 (2)

Evidence¶

Monika Undorf 2021¶

Monika Undorf, Iris Livneh, Rakefet Ackerman. (2021). Metacognitive control processes in question answering: help seeking and withholding answers. Metacognition and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-021-09259-7

q3 · i3 · causal · r2

Laboratory experiment, 100 Technion undergraduates across four conditions (help-seeking, don't-know, combination, no-choice) answering English general-knowledge questions. The comparison of gamma correlations showed "weaker in the help-seeking condition than in the don't-know condition, t(54) = 4.80, p < 0.001, d = 1.45".

"Control sensitivity (see Table 2 for descriptive statistics) was weaker in the help-seeking condition than in the don't-know condition, t(54) = 4.80, p < 0.001, d = 1.45."

Monika Undorf 2021 (2)¶

Monika Undorf, Iris Livneh, Rakefet Ackerman. (2021). Metacognitive control processes in question answering: help seeking and withholding answers. Metacognition and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-021-09259-7

q3 · i2 · causal · r2

Online replication with 203 participants from predominantly English-speaking countries paid a performance-contingent monetary bonus (1 point = 1p). The pattern replicated "weaker in the help-seeking than in the don't-know condition, t(79) = 2.68, p = 0.009, d = 0.60".

"As in Experiment 2a, control sensitivity (see Table 2 for descriptive statistics) was weaker in the help-seeking than in the don't-know condition, t(79) = 2.68, p = 0.009, d = 0.60, and, in the combination condition, weaker for help requests than for don't-know responses, t(20) = 3.47, p = 0.002, d = 0.80."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Participants seek help less often than they withhold answers when both strategies are available or compared across conditions — related
• The overlap in confidence ranges between submitted answers and strategy use is larger for help seeking than for withholding answers — related
• Help seeking is guided by a wider variety of considerations beyond improving immediate answer accuracy than withholding answers is — related
• The option to withhold answers improves output-bound accuracy, whereas the option to seek help does not consistently do so — related