Retrieved information in intentionality ratings of other persons' behaviors

Abstract

Participants (N=153) rated intentionality (with a confidence rating) of 10 behaviors from the observer's perspective. There were three conditions of behaviors: behavior-only, behavior with-reason, or behavior with-cause conditions. Significant differences between the means for all of the behavior conditions were found for both intentionality and confidence ratings, and interactions of Condition × Behavior also significant. When the intentionality values were transformed with a V-shaped function, the means of the transformed values significantly increased along with the mean confidence rating in the with-reason and with-cause conditions, fa addition, the across-participant correlations between intentionality and confidence for each behavior were negative when the intentionality mean was near the minimum, and the correlations were positive when the intentionality mean was large; this trend was close to a linear function. These findings suggest that the intentionality rating was based on both a binary judgment and a confidence value.