Previous Projects

-Topic:Eyewitness Memory and Metacognition

The question of whether eyewitness memory, which contains information about a witnessed or experienced event, is reliable remains current. Studies on the accuracy of eyewitness memory emphasize the importance of the witness, the suspect and the interrogation processes (the characteristics of the interviewer, the questioning style and the type of feedback). However, metacognitive judgments about the accuracy of the remembered information are thought to play a key role in understanding these factors. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of correct and incorrect feedback given in eyewitness memory on the accuracy of the remembered information and on the related metacognitive evaluations.

Project Team: Aleyna Elmaslı, Ceyda Yalçın, Halid Oğuz Serçe, Metehan Irak

-Topic:Mentalization, Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Eyewitness Memory

The eyewitness memory literature has shown that various cognitive processes (need for cognition, mentalization, etc.) can lead to false remembering. Whether mentalization, one of these cognitive processes, affects eyewitness memory accuracy in individuals with obsessive-compulsive symptoms has not yet been investigated in the literature. When individuals with obsessive-compulsive symptoms encounter stimuli that evoke contamination and disgust, they become contaminated by mentalizing the situation. Accordingly, the aim of this project is to examine the eyewitness memory processes of participants who are shown videos that trigger feelings of disgust. Since participants with obsessive-compulsive symptoms will experience feelings of contamination and disgust through a more intense mentalization process, they are expected to make more eyewitness memory errors.

Project Team: Metehan Irak, Hıdır Arslan, Halid Oğuz Serçe

-Topic:Comparison of the Neural Bases of Decision-Making and Metacognitive Processes Using the Event-Related Potentials Method (Supported by the TÜBİTAK 1001 Program)

The question of whether the neural bases of decision-making and metacognitive processes differ, or at which stage of the decision process the neural structures related to metacognitive evaluations come into play, remains current. The proposed project seeks answers to two fundamental and important questions. The first question is whether there is a difference between the neural bases of metacognition and decision-making processes. In this regard, the first original contribution of the project is that it examines a current and important fundamental scientific question using specially designed tasks and different analysis methods. One of the main claims of the project is that the level of uncertainty during the decision will be decisive in investigating the similarity or difference between the neural bases of these two cognitive processes. Building on this, the second question of the project is whether decision uncertainty has an effect on the relationship between metacognition and decision-making processes. Accordingly, the second original contribution of the study is that, for the first time in the literature, it will examine the effect of uncertainty on the relationship between decision-making and metacognition, and how this effect changes according to task type, using event-related brain potentials (ERP), source localization and power spectrum methods during different metacognitive evaluations (judgment of learning [JOL], feeling of knowing [FOK]) and decision evaluations (decision, re-decision, decision confidence).

Project Team: Metehan Irak, Can Soylu, Soner Yücetepe, Busenur Akbaş, Öznur Çamoğlu

-Topic:The Effect of Worry on Metamemory Decisions: An ERP Study

Worry, the cognitive component of anxiety, has a significant effect on metamemory and metacognitive judgments. Worry is a psychological concept and a form of thinking about the future. During a state of worry, which consists of unpleasant and disturbing thoughts, people try to direct their attention to other things and feel that the situation cannot be consciously controlled. In this study, we investigate the effect of worry on the temporal dynamics of judgment of learning and feeling-of-knowing judgments under an episodic memory task. Participants will be divided into two groups, low worry and high worry, based on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire.

Project Team:Metehan Irak, Öznur Çamoğlu

-Topic: Examining the Effect of the Feeling-of-Knowing Paradigm and Encoding Style on the Consistency of Metacognitive Judgments

In the classical feeling-of-knowing (FOK) paradigm, participants give FOK judgments only for the items they cannot recall, but there are also studies that collect FOK judgments for all items. Based on this difference, the classical FOK paradigm and the all-items paradigm were compared for both episodic and semantic memory. For both memory types, the consistency of FOK judgments increased when all items were used. This result showed that the higher FOK result found by one study may be due to the method it used rather than a difference in manipulation. A second experiment examined how the more consistent results obtained when FOK judgments are collected for all items are affected when the encoding strategy is controlled. For episodic memory, the encoding strategy was manipulated through instructions. With word concreteness controlled, one group was given visual imagery instructions and the other group sentence generation instructions during the learning phase. The group that learned by generating sentences gave more consistent FOK judgments. Concreteness comparisons also showed that concrete word pairs were remembered more successfully in all of the recall, recognition and FOK sections.
 

Project Team: Yiğit Onur Şen, Mustafa Yavuz, Metehan Irak

-Topic: Relationships Between Delusion-Like Experiences, Lack of Control, Pattern Perception, Memory Illusion and Decision-Making

Previous research has provided evidence for a relationship between delusion-like experiences (DLE) and irrational beliefs. A common assumption is that DLE increases with a feeling of lack of control. Delusion-like experiences also include certain behaviors related to irrational beliefs. Since a direct relationship between DLE and delusion-like experiences has not yet been established in the literature, in this study one hypothesis on the relationship between delusion-like experiences and DLE was measured with a visual noise task in which participants' feeling of lack of control was manipulated, while another hypothesis, that the tendency to jump to conclusions in the bead task is predicted by DLE, was also tested.

Project Team: Görkem Çetin, Gizem Merve Tüzel, Metehan Irak

-Topic: Examining the Relationships Between Encoding Differences and Feeling-of-Knowing Performance in Individuals with OCD

This study, conducted to better understand the memory processes of individuals with OCD, aimed to examine memory processes and recognition performance during learning and encoding, and to compare possible differences with feeling-of-knowing judgment performance. The interaction between the retrieval process in memory and encoding and learning is already known in the literature. We compared judgment of learning and feeling-of-knowing performance in three different episodic memory tasks in patients with OCD and healthy individuals.
 

Project Team: Can Soylu, Sena Yüksel, Ozan Akbaş, Sevcan Öztoraman, Metehan Irak (BAU), Volkan Topçuoğlu (Marmara Psychiatry)

-Topic: Feeling of Knowing in Semantic Memory and the Relationship of Memory Confidence with Executive Functions: An ERP Study

The aim of this study is to examine the feeling-of-knowing paradigm in semantic memory, taking into account the neural mechanisms of the feeling of knowing. For this purpose, 93 general knowledge questions created through a norming study were used in a semantic memory task with the classical recall-judgment-recognition paradigm (Hart, 1965). The neural mechanisms of feeling-of-knowing and confidence judgments in the semantic memory task were examined through event-related brain potentials and the consistency of feeling-of-knowing judgments. In addition, set-shifting ability and cognitive flexibility, which are executive functions, were assessed in order to measure the underlying mechanisms of the feeling-of-knowing judgment and the contribution of executive functions to the feeling of knowing.

Project Team: Berna Güler, Can Soylu, Gözem Turan, Metehan Irak

-Topic: Examining the Effects of Mood on Feeling of Knowing Under a Face-Name Recognition Task

Feeling of knowing (FOK) is a metacognitive judgment about whether information that cannot be recalled at the moment will be remembered in the future. Studies have shown that mood has an effect on cognitive functions such as language and memory. However, only a limited number of studies have been conducted on the effects of emotions on FOK, and in these studies mood manipulation was carried out through the experimental stimuli. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of different mood inductions on FOK judgments during a face-name recognition task, as well as how these effects vary according to different personality traits.

  
Project Team: Emir Akbuğa, Fatmanur Tunç, Begüm Yüksel, Elif Güldemir, Metehan Irak
            
-Topic: Standardization, Validity and Reliability Study of the Metacognitions Questionnaire for Children

The original name of the scale developed by Bacow et al. (2009) is "Meta-Cognitions
Questionnaire for Children (MCQ-C)". The development of the MCQ-C was based on the adolescent form of the MCQ (Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire for Adolescents; MCQ-A) developed by Cartwright-Hatton et al. (2004). The standardization study began in May 2010. The sample of the study consisted of 470 primary and high school students (205 girls, 265 boys) attending 71 different schools in Istanbul during the 2009-2010 academic year. Along with the MCQ-C, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAI-C) and the Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) were administered.

Project Team: Bahçeşehir University Department of Psychology third-year students, Metehan Irak

-Topic: The Effect of External Feedback on Feeling-of-Knowing Performance

Feeling of knowing is one of the types of metacognition. The main theories on this subject point to the importance of monitoring and control processes. Feeling-of-knowing judgments are formed during or after learning. These judgments concern a prediction of the extent to which information that cannot be recalled at the moment can be known or remembered in a later recall test. Unlike the traditional method used to measure the feeling of knowing experimentally, this study examined the effect of different types of external feedback on the feeling of knowing.
 

Project Team: Cansın Özgör, Fatih Yıldızhan, Metehan Irak

-Topic: The Relationship of Directed Forgetting with Different Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

Do we learn information we are told to "forget" in the same way as information we are told to "remember"? In this project, which used a directed forgetting task, the relationship of this type of direction with different obsessive-compulsive symptoms (such as washing or checking) was examined. The tasks prepared for this purpose were administered to healthy volunteers and participants diagnosed with OCD. The study was conducted jointly with the Department of Psychiatry, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine.
 

Project Team: Dicle Çapan, Pınar Erçelik, Zülal Oğuz, Hazal Çelik, Metehan Irak

-Topic: Age-Related Changes in Metacognitive Beliefs

The relevant literature points to the importance of ages 13 and 18 for metacognitive beliefs. In this project, which used a cross-sectional method, age-related changes in metacognitive beliefs measured with the child and adult forms of the Metacognitions Questionnaire were examined. The sample consisted of 2,251 people of different ages (8-65), education levels and genders.

Project Team: Dicle Çapan, Can Soylu, Metehan Irak
                    
-Topic: Neurobiological Bases of Metacognition: Examining the Temporal Priority of Monitoring and Control Processes Through Event-Related Brain Potentials and Their Relationship with Attention and Perceptual Processes (Supported by the TÜBİTAK 1001 Program)

In the widely accepted model developed by Nelson and Narens (1990) to explain metacognitive processes, it has not been clarified whether monitoring and control processes have temporal priority during the feeling-of-knowing process. The proposed project has two main aims. The first aim of the study was to examine, through event-related potentials (ERP), whether there is a temporal priority between monitoring and control processes during the feeling-of-knowing judgment, one of the types of metacognition. It is known that feeling-of-knowing judgments are affected by the memory task used (Irak, 2005; 2009). For this reason, in the proposed study, feeling of knowing was measured separately using semantic and episodic memory tasks. The second aim of the study was to examine the relationship of metacognition with attention and perceptual processes, again through ERPs. Accordingly, it was examined whether there is a relationship between the ERPs obtained during the Stroop and Cancellation Tests and the ERPs obtained during metacognitive performance.
 

Project Team: Can Soylu, Dicle Çapan, Cansın Özgör, Fatih Yıldızhan, BAU Department of Psychology students and Metehan Irak

-Topic: The Effect of Violent Video Game Addiction on Cognitive Processes and Event-Related Brain Potentials

It is emphasized that violent video game addiction (VVGA) is a serious threat to individuals' mental health, brings with it various psychosocial consequences and leads to an increase in the rate of destructive and aggressive behavior. It is stated that this condition has the potential to negatively affect the natural development of the brain and is one of the factors that pave the way for various cognitive and behavioral problems in the long term. Research has shown that an obsessive behavior (for example, gambling addiction) creates changes in brain activity similar to substance addiction. Based on this, gaming addiction can also be expected to cause certain changes in individuals' cognitive processes and brain functions. Indeed, studies on internet addiction also support this assumption. An important feature that distinguishes gaming addiction from other addictions
is that it also includes elements of violence. From these perspectives, it becomes important to examine what kinds of changes long-term exposure to violent games creates in cognitive, behavioral and neurobiological processes. The main aim of the proposed project was to examine the effects of gaming addiction and VVGA on event-related brain potentials (ERP) and cognitive processes.
 

Project Team: Can Soylu, Dicle Çapan, İnan Şen, BAU Department of Psychology students and Metehan Irak

Topic: Neurobiological Bases of Adult Attachment and Its Relationship with Cognitive Biases

Behavioral studies have shown that attachment theory has direct implications for daily life, including interpersonal relationships, marriage, parental attitudes, child rearing and mood disorders (such as stress, anxiety and depression). Studies have shown that individual differences in attachment levels lead to various effects on different types of cognitive and emotional processes, especially in social situations that are or are not attachment-relevant. Although information processing and emotion regulation models on this subject suggest that these effects may follow certain pathways in the brain, the neural mechanisms associated with these effects, the functioning of cognitive processes and the type of biases in this functioning have still not been fully discovered. Based on this, the aims of the project were to reveal which brain structures different attachment levels are associated with, to examine how event-related potentials (ERP) obtained under different cognitive tasks differ according to attachment levels, and to test the relationships of cognitive and neurobiological responses with physiological reactions (skin conductance responses).
 

Project Team: Can Soylu, Dicle Çapan, İnan Şen, BAU Department of Psychology students and Metehan Irak

-Topic: The Effect of Different Encoding Strategies on Metacognitive Judgments: An ERP Study

The study has two main aims. The first aim is to investigate whether there is a neural relationship between episodic memory encoding and subsequent successful or unsuccessful recognition performance. The second aim is to examine the relationships between episodic encoding processes and metacognitive judgments, namely feeling-of-knowing and judgment-of-learning judgments, using the ERP method. It is assumed that certain strong activations and representations during encoding may have predictive power for successful as well as unsuccessful episodic memory retrieval. In addition, feeling-of-knowing judgments, one of the metacognitive processes, may be informative in explaining the behavioral and neural basis of unsuccessful recall and recognition. Participants' episodic memory and metacognitive judgments are measured under three different episodic memory tasks consisting of stimuli from different modalities (e.g., familiar and unfamiliar words, places and faces).

Project Team: Metehan Irak, Can Soylu, Berna Güler

-Topic: The Effect of Excessive Violent Video Game Playing on Working Memory and Response Inhibition: An Event-Related Brain Oscillations Study
Behavioral addictions, similar to biological addictions, have been associated with memory-related problems and impulsivity. Accordingly, in this study, participants will be divided into two groups: those who play excessively violent video games and those who do not play games. Participants will perform the Go/No-Go task and the N-Back task, which measure response inhibition and working memory.
 

Project Team: Özüm Karya Sakman, Elif Güldemir, Can Soylu, Metehan Irak