Odor Emotionality Affects the Confidence in Odor Naming

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that participants are overconfident in the veracity of their odor identifications. This means that their confidence expressed as subjective probabilities is, on average, higher than the actual proportion of correct odor identifications. The current experiment tested the hypothesis that the more arousing an odor is, the more participants are overconfident in their identification of it. The results indicated that part of the overconfidence in odor identification can, indeed, be due to the arousing properties of the odors. This suggests that emotional variables should be taken into account when researching metamemory.

Choice, difficulty, and confidence in the brain

“…1 increases are due not only to higher peak firing, but also to the fact that the variability of firing within a trial becomes less as ΔI increases (r = -0.95, p b 10 −4 ), reflecting the fact that the system is more noisy and unstable with low ΔI, whereas the firing rate in the attractor is maintained more stably with smaller statistical fluctuations against the Poisson effects of the random spike timings at high ΔI (the measure of variation indicated in the figure is the standard deviation, and this is shown throughout unless otherwise stated to quantify the degree of variation, which is a fundamental aspect of the operation of these neuronal decision-making networks). The increase of the firing rate when in the D1 attractor (blue line) as ΔI increases thus reflects the confidence of the decision which increases with ΔI (Jonsson et al, 2005;Vickers, 1979;Vickers and Packer, 1982), and, as will be shown next in Fig. 3b, the performance as shown by the percentage of correct choices.…”

“…We show that the model predicts higher firing rates, synaptic currents, and fMRI BOLD (functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging blood oxygenation level dependent) signals on easy trials vs. difficult trials, and in fact that these increase monotonically (approximately linearly) with ΔI, the difference between the stimuli. Further, it is well established that subjective decision confidence increases with discriminability, ΔI (Jonsson et al, 2005;Vickers, 1979;Vickers and Packer, 1982), and thus the degree of confidence in a decision emerges from the model as being reflected by the firing rates of the neurons involved in the decision-making. Consistently, in rats too the probability that a trial will be aborted reflecting low decision confidence also increases with ΔI on error trials (Kepecs et al, 2008).…”

Decision-Making, Errors, and Confidence in the Brain

“…Further, it is well established that subjective decision confidence (assessed before the outcome is known) increases with discriminability, measured by the difference between the stimuli, ⌬I, that is, as the decision becomes easier and the percentage correct becomes better (Jonsson et al 2005;Vickers 1979;Vickers and Packer 1982). Consistent with this, the probability that a rat will abort a trial is higher if a decision just made is incorrect (Kepecs et al 2008).…”

“…Evidence from primate single neuron recordings shows that neuronal responses in a motion decision-making task occur earlier on easy versus difficult trials in a visual motion decision-related brain region, the posterior parietal cortex, in which neuronal activity reflects decision confidence (Kiani and Shadlen 2009). In the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, higher functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals can be observed on easy trials versus difficult trials in a similar decision-making task, and this has been proposed as a signature of decision-making (Heekeren et al 2004(Heekeren et al , 2008.Further, it is well established that subjective decision confidence (assessed before the outcome is known) increases with discriminability, measured by the difference between the stimuli, ⌬I, that is, as the decision becomes easier and the percentage correct becomes better (Jonsson et al 2005;Vickers 1979;Vickers and Packer 1982). Consistent with this, the probability that a rat will abort a trial is higher if a decision just made is incorrect (Kepecs et al 2008).…”

How do you feel when you smell this? Optimization of a verbal measurement of odor-elicited emotions

“…Dimensional theories, on the other hand, reduce emotions to positions in a two-dimensional valence by arousal space or a three-dimensional space that includes potency (e.g., Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm, 1993;Russell, 1980;Wundt, 1909). In this case, the affective terms are chosen to characterize the underlying two or three dimensions (e.g., arousing, pleasant, powerful: Bensafi et al, 2002aBensafi et al, , 2002bChebat & Michon, 2003;Herz, Schankler, & Beland, 2004;Heuberger, Hongratanaworakit, Böhm, Weber, & Buchbauer, 2001;Jonsson, Olsson, & Olsson, 2005;Pössel, Ahrens, & Hautzinger, 2005;Schifferstein & Tanudjaja, 2004;Warrenburg, 2005). However, as explained hereafter, we claim that neither model is able to provide detailed explanations or predictions for some of the central features of olfaction-induced emotional feeling.…”