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Trent N. Cash

Postdoctoral Scholar at University of Waterloo
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Metareasoning in Subjective Decisions

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Collaborator: Daniel M. Oppenheimer

Overview

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the role of metacognition in decision making, thus spawning the field of metareasoning. However, the extant metareasoning literature has largely focused on reasoning tasks in which participants' metacognitive judgments can be compared to objective standards, such as accuracy or solvability. While these studies provide valuable insights into the important role that metacognition plays in objective decision making, it is unclear how these findings may generalize to the many subjective decisions – such as who to marry, which house to purchase, which college to attend, and which medical treatment to undergo – that are pervasive in decision makers’ lives and have significant impacts on their long-term happiness and well-being.  As such, this project seeks to investigate the role of metacognition in subjective decision making by exploring decision makers' metacognitive knowledge of the attributes weights they apply in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions. This project has six central goals:
  1. To validate a novel paradigm for assessing metacognitive knowledge of attribute weights in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions
  2. To isolate the mechanisms underlying metacognitive knowledge in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions
  3. To identify contextual factors that promote or inhibit metacognitive knowledge in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions
  4. To understand how limitations in metacognitive knowledge may predict common decision errors and biases, such as framing effects
  5. To apply our understanding of metacognitive knowledge in multi-attribute choice to applied contexts, such as patient decision making.
  6. To explore interventions that may improve the accuracy of decision makers' metacognitive knowledge, including AI-powered interventions.
I am also interested in expanding this line of research to explore the metacognitive control strategies that decision makers use to improve their decision making processes in subjective, multi-attribute choice. Specifically, I have three additional goals:
  1. To explore the extent to which decision makers can use metacognitive control strategies to make subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions that align with their self-reported preferences
  2. To test interventions that may improve participants' metacognitive control in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions, including AI-powered interventions.
  3. To assess the relationship between metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive control in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions

Publications

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2025). Assessing metacognitive knowledge in subjective decisions: The Knowledge of Weights paradigm. Thinking & Reasoning, 31(3), 331-373. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2024.2426543 
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2024). Parental rights or parental wrongs: Parents’ metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their school choice decisions. PLOS ONE, 19(4), e0301768. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301768
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (R&R). Investigating resource-rational strategic allocation of metacognitive resources in multi-attribute choice decisions. 
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (Under Review) Isolating sources of metacognitive knowledge in multi-attribute choice. 

Works in Progress

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (In Preparation). Metacognitive control of attribute weights in multi-attribute choice. 
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (In Progress). Framing effects in multi-attribute choice: Attribute weights shift without metacognitive awareness. 

Presentations 

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2025, November). Metacognitive knowledge of attribute weights: Investigating the value of internal and external cues [Oral Presentation]. To be presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Denver, CO. 
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2025, November). Framing effects in multi-attribute choice: Attribute weights shift without metacognitive awareness [Poster Session]. To be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Denver, CO. 
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2024, November). Metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive control in subjective, multi-attribute choice [Oral Presentation]. 65th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New York, NY.
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2024, June). Metacognitive knowledge in multi-attribute choice: Assessing the role of decision complexity. In V. Thompson (chair), Meta-Reasoning: What do metacognitive judgments tell us about reasoning?  [Symposium]. International Conference on Thinking, Milan, Italy.

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2023, November). Evaluating metacognition in subjective, multi-attribute choice [Poster Session]. Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, San Francisco, CA.

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2023, November). Evaluating metareasoning in subjective, multi-attribute choice decisions [Oral Presentation]. 64th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, San Francisco, CA.

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2022, December). Metacognitive Knowledge of Preferences in Policy Relevant Decisions [Oral Presentation]. First Metareasoning Conference, Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem, Israel.

Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2022, November). Do cognitive aids improve metacognitive knowledge in school choice decisions?  [Poster Session]. Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, San Diego, CA. 
Cash, T. N., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2022, February). How well do parents know their own preferences when making school choice decisions?  [Poster session]. Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Virtual.

Grants

August 2025: Lupina Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Waterloo Faculty of Arts, $70,000

January 2024: Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG), National Science Foundation, $29,900. Award No. 2333553

February 2023: Graduate Student Small Research Grant, Center for Behavioral and Decision Research, $2,500

July 2021: Graduate Student Small Research Grant, Center for Behavioral and Decision Research, $2,500
September 2020 (Renewed Through February 2025):  Academic Software Grant, Sawtooth Software, $16,800 (Received in kind)