Poster #7 - Seek, and You Will Find? Metacognitive Judgments When Answering Knowledge Questions With the Internet

• In Event: 77.059 - MTCC Tuesday Poster Session 18
  In Poster Session: 77.059-1 - Exploring Motivational Constructs in Authentic Academic Settings

Abstract

Previous research shows that users overestimate their ability to answer questions with Internet access. This two-by-three within-subject experiment tests the conditions and limits of this “Overestimation-with-Internet-Bias” by using a different design and additional types of questions and judgments. Repeated-measure ANOVAs with the factors Internet (Internet vs. No-Internet) and type of question (factual vs. explanatory vs. socio-scientific) show the following results: Replicating previous findings, participants overestimated their ability to answer explanatory knowledge questions in the Internet condition. We found similar patterns for confidence and difficulty judgments and socio-scientific questions, but different patterns for other judgments and factual questions. Additionally, participants gave less-than-excellent answers to complex questions in the Internet conditions. We speculate about potential consequences and countermeasures of this bias.

Authors

• Stephanie Pieschl, Technical University Darmstadt

• Janene Budd, The University of Newcastle