Effects of decision importance on ability to generate warranted subjective uncertainty.

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Abstract
In a multiple-choice testing situation, 40 college students were required to assign to each alternative of each item a probability value corresponding to their subjective estimate of the correctness of the alternative. 2 levels of test importance were employed: Half of the students believed that they were participating in their last chance at taking a midterm examination, while the other half believed that they would be allowed to retake the midterm if they failed to earn a grade of A in this attempt. As predicted, Ss who responded under conditions of high importance, relative to those who believed they would have a 2nd chance at the examination, generated less response uncertainty, assessed less accurately their state of knowledge, and tended to err through overestimation of the probability of correctness of high-probability alternatives and underestimation of the probability of correctness of low-probability alternatives. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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