Metacognition Across Interoception, Visual Perception, and Memory: Domain-Specific or Domain-General?

This study draws inspiration from a 2020 study by Mazancieux et al., which demonstrated a certain degree of domain generality in metacognitive performance across tasks such as episodic memory, visual perception, and semantic memory (Mazancieux et al., 2020). However, significant differences were noted in the degree of domain generality across these tasks. Furthermore, Lehmann et al. (2022) indicated that metacognition exists concurrently with both domain generality and domain specificity. Previous research has primarily explored the association between metacognition and cognitive processes related to objective feelings, without extensively delving into the metacognition of internal bodily signals (interoception). This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the interplay between internal bodily feelings, external perception, and memory. To accurately assess the metacognition of interoceptive awareness, we employed an adapted version of the Filter Detection Task paradigm (Nikolova et al., 2022). In this task, participants performed two inhalations per trial and then judged which inhalation had greater resistance or difficulty. Following this, participants made a confidence assessment regarding the accuracy of their choice using a scale where 1 indicated very low confidence, 2 low confidence, 3 high confidence, and 4 very high confidence. To evaluate metacognitive performance in perceptual and memory tasks, we utilized the paradigm developed by Morales et al. (2018). Adjustments were made to minimize the influence of primary task performance on confidence judgments, including the introduction of a staircase procedure in both tasks.