title: Insight in cognition: self-awareness of performance across cognitive domains.
abstract: Loss of cognitive functions, as apparent through self-awareness, is considered an important indicator of cognitive deficits and is therefore commonly used in clinical practice. However, little is known about self-awareness of cognitive performance, including its accuracy, its basis, and whether people can distinguish their performance across different cognitive domains. In the present study, 20 university students (M (age) = 21.7 ± 2.2 years, 9 males) and 20 middle-aged participants (M (age) = 52.8 ± 3.9 years, 10 males) gave estimations of their performances on executive functioning, memory, attention, and visuoperception before and after confrontation with their capacities. A repeated-measures analysis of variance with age group as a between-subjects factor was performed on the calculated estimation errors, before and after neuropsychological testing. Overall, the estimation errors were significantly higher before than after experience with test performance, ps < .01, partial η²s = .17. An overall effect of domain (four levels), ps < .001, partial η²s = .22 was found. These results suggest that self-awareness is domain-specific, and although it is adaptive to the experience of mental effort, it is most dependent on preexisting beliefs about one's own cognitive abilities.
authors: Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute and Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. l.a.schoo@uu.nl
authors: Linda A
authors: LA
authors: Schoo
authors: Martine J E
authors: MJ
authors: van Zandvoort
authors: G J
authors: GJ
authors: Biessels
authors: L Jaap
authors: LJ
authors: Kappelle
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Postma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012647:Self-Assessment; D014796:Visual Perception