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To assess reinforcement learning, confidence, and their interaction in the context of goal-directed behavior in gambling disorder (GD), we utilize a reinforcement learning task as described in ((Lebreton et al., 2019), Experiment 2). This task allows us to derive various indicators that can be compared between healthy controls and people with GD

This project entails multiple parts, including 18F-DOPA PET imaging, neuromelanin MRI (nMRI), cognitive tasks and clinical questionnaires for people with gambling disorder (GD) and a matched healthy control (HC) group.

In this study we will employ a transdiagnostic approach to psychiatry, and leverage a large-scale general population sample to interrogate the relationship between metacognition (local confidence and global self-performance beliefs), feelings of autonomy, self-esteem, mastery, and self-reported psychopathology. Alterations in metacognitive performance such as biases in confidence estimation (e.g. overconfidence) or deficiency in metacognitive sensitivity (i.e. the ability to discriminate between correct and incorrect decisions with one’s sense of confidence) have been found in several psychiatric disorders and linked to self-reported psychiatric symptoms (Hoven et al., 2019; Rouault, Seow, Gillan, & Fleming, 2018). Yet, little is known about how confidence estimates and psychopathology are related. One hypothesis is that alterations in metacognitive performance directly contribute to sub-optimal or even pathological decision-making. Moreover, alterations in metacognitive performance could additionally affect more general self-believes and higher order psychological constructs such as self-esteem, mastery and autonomy. These self-believes and psychological constructs are important for well-being and functioning, and may in turn be related to psychopathology. Importantly, in a recent study, Rouault et al. (2019) demonstrated that multiple momentary confidence estimates on decisions (local confidence) can be integrated over longer time scales to form global performance estimates (Rouault, Dayan, & Fleming, 2019). The formation and updating of these more global beliefs about self-ability may be a more intermediate construct connecting local confidence estimates with more general psychological characteristics such as self-esteem. Indeed Rouault et al. (personal communication) have shown that individuals scoring high on self-esteem have higher estimates of their global self-performance (global self believes). To capitalize on this finding we will further test the relationship between (1) metacognitive performance (including local confidence and global self-performance estimates) and (2) self-reported psychopathology as well as (3) psychological constructs (including autonomy, self-esteem, mastery and narcissism). Both self-reported psychopathology and the psychological constructs will be measured with self-report questionnaires. Metacognitive performance will be measured using confidence judgments (i.e. how confident a subject is of making a correct decision) within a perceptual decision-making task. Subjects will see two blocks with dots in it and have to make a decision as to which box contained the most dots. Within this task we will study the link between local (trial-by-trial basis) confidence and the formation of a more ‘global’ form of confidence (confidence over time or trials).

In this study we will explore the integration of evidence given post-decision on confidence in OCD patients.

Study on the coupling of learning behavior (actions) and confidence in those actions in unstable environments in OCD patients.

In this study we will look at the relationship between global self performance estimates and local confidence in OCD patients.

this is a pre-registration for an online PRLT study in people scoring low to high on the PGSI