Developmental Interest Group (DIG)

Developing a Sense of Confidence

Uncertainty can feel uncomfortable and annoying, something we may try to minimize at all costs. But uncertainty is also a valuable signal about the limits of our knowledge; one that we as scientists embrace to push the boundaries of what is known. In this talk, I argue that even in childhood, we leverage uncertainty as an informative signal to make sense of our world. I present work that reveals the core properties of feelings of confidence (our subjective representations of uncertainty), including unique development in fine-tuning, interpreting, and integrating confidence across distinct sources. Then, I explore what these properties tell us about how confidence supports early learning and social decision-making. I find that interpreting confidence, rather than fine-tuning it, matters more for learning, and I present a new line of research demonstrating how confidence is used to reason in social contexts.

We encourage in-person attendance but if you are unable to attend in person, please join us via this Zoom link.