Keywords
Confirmation Bias, Expertise, Metacognition, Visuospatial Task
Abstract
It has been shown that there exists a relationship between levels of metacognitive ability and estimation of personal ability for largely verbally-based tasks, where those with lessened facility for the task tend toward overestimation of their aptitude relative to their peers (Kruger and Dunning, 1999). This study examines this effect for a task of mechanical ability for volunteer participants (n = 69), where participants were given an abbreviated form of the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test (BMCT) to establish a level of competency. Following the administration of the BMCT, the participants were then asked to speculate on the hypothetical grade for their performance, as well as the relationship between their hypothetical grade, and the grades of others. Participants then "tutored" a hypothetical student on the solution to one of the problems found on the BMCT, and their explanations were coded for degree of bias towards confirmation versus disconfirmation that was utilized in the problem solving. It was found that females' basic ability had a greater range than males', and females on the high and low ends of competency made greater use of confirming strategies in their problem solving. This is indicative of the overall observed interaction effect between Gender, Perceived Relative Competence, and Actual Competence observed in this study.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2005
Semester
Spring
Advisor
Sims, Valerie K.
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Office of Liberal and Interdisciplinary Studies
Degree Program
Liberal Studies
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0000547
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000547
Language
English
Release Date
January 2006
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Masters Thesis (Open Access)
STARS Citation
Ballion, Tatiana, "The Effect Of Gender, Confirmation Bias, And Metacognitive Self Assessment Over Varying Levels Of Expertise In A Visuospatial Task" (2005). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 279.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/279