Visualization of Uncertainty Aids Spatial Judgments but Fails to Improve Metacognitive Efficiency

Abstract

Uncertainty is an element of many decision-making tasks and inherently compromises performance. Research has found only equivocal evidence that uncertainty representations—displays that explicitly denote data quality—offset the performance costs of uncertainty. As yet, though, no work has examined the potential benefits of uncertainty displays to metacognition, display readers’ ability to assess the quality of their own decision-making processes. The current study examined the benefits of uncertainty visualization to first-order (Type 1) and metacognitive (Type 2) sensitivity in a spatial judgment task. Data revealed only small improvements in Type 1 and Type 2 sensitivity with visualized uncertainty displays, and gave no evidence of disproportionate gains to metacognition.