Confidence judgements are built looking back at our decisions (i), but also impact our decision-making in turn (ii).

(i) In a first series of empirical studies, I will consider that confidence can be computed across a number of hierarchical levels, from local confidence in a given decision to self-beliefs about our abilities on a given task up to global (trait) self-confidence. Using fMRI, I will show that confidence-related activity is largely shared across two cognitive tasks, suggesting a global component. I will also show that local and task-based confidence differently map onto trait psychiatric symptoms that naturally fluctuate in the general population.

(ii) In a second series of empirical studies, I will show how local confidence impacts change-of-mind decisions at short time scales. Our data reveal that when participants are in control of the evidence sampled for deciding, they need more evidence against their current beliefs to change their mind, but change their mind with reduced confidence, and are more likely to confirm a change of mind on the next decision.

Together these results characterise different forms of metacognitive confidence, and suggest that global components of metacognition, even more than local, may impact our behavior.