Dunning-Kruger effect: Intuitive errors predict overconfidence in cognitive reflex testing.
The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is a measure of analytic reasoning that cues intuitive but erroneous responses that need to be rejected for successful performance The CRT produces two types of errors Type 1 Intuitive errors resulting from a process. Non-intuitive errors resulting from insufficient computational power or insufficient reasoning. Past research has shown that participants with the highest number of errors in CRTs tend to overestimate their performance the most, while those with the lowest error rates tend to slightly underestimate. This is an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE). The present study examined how intuitive and counterintuitive errors contribute to overestimation of CRT at various levels of performance. Female college students completed a seven-item CRT test and estimated their posterior scores. They also completed the Faith in Intuition (FI) questionnaire, a measure of disposition for intuitive thinking. The data were divided into quartiles based on CRT performance level. The results showed DKE. In addition, intuitive and non-intuitive errors predicted miscalibration among low performers but high performers. However, intuitive errors were a stronger predictor of miscalibration. Finally, FI was positively correlated with CRT self-estimation and miscalibration, indicating that participants who felt more intuitive had poorer score estimates.
Coutinho MVC, Thomas J, Alsuwaidi ASM, Couchman JJ (20, 2021) Dunning-Kruger effect: intuitive errors predict overconfidence on a cognitive reflection test. Front. Psychol. 12: 603225. doi: 10.3389 / fpsyg.2021.603225
Explanation
This study was investigating the contribution of intuitive errors compared to non-intuitive errors to the miscalibration between low and high CRT performers. They also tested whether intuitive thinking tendencies were associated with miscalibration. Consistent with previous studies, the "DKE" was replicated, and participants with the highest number of errors showed the highest degree of miscalibration.
In support of this hypothesis, we found that intuitively incorrect responses were a stronger predictor of miscalibration than unintuitive incorrect responses among students in the lower quartiles, but that this relationship was not present among high performers. A possible explanation for these findings is that low and high performers do not use the same cues, or at least not to the same extent, when judging the accuracy of a response.
Low performers are more likely to use surface-based cues, such as unreliable response fluency, and this trend has been observed in previous studies. It has been reported that low achievers are more sensitive to unreliable surface-level cues than high achievers when regulating text learning. Competent readers have been shown to base their decisions on valid comprehension-based cues. A belief of people with this tendency is that they are able to explain text to others.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE) is a
Overestimating the level of skills, knowledge, and performance in different situations, and the miscalibration between estimated and actual performance follows a consistent pattern. People who score low on cognitive tests tend to overestimate their performance the most, mid-range performers tend to overestimate less, and the best performers tend to slightly underestimate themselves.
