Metacognition: characteristics and components

The term metacognition is complex. It can be summarized as knowledge about one’s own knowledge, that is, the ability to know and regulate how we think and which encompasses the conscious control of cognitive processes such as memory, attention and understanding.

The study of metacognition began with the epistemologist and cognitive psychologist J. Flavell and with the English anthropologist and psychologist Gregory Bateson. The latter focused on studies on metacognition in animals.

Metacognition gives us that extra flexibility that characterizes the human mind. So, metacognition must be understood as second-order knowledge, insofar as it has itself as an object. Hence the prefix “meta”. This allows us to evaluate executive processes and act accordingly to improve our actions.

An example of metacognition could be the fact that we are reading a text and when we check whether we have understood it, we realize that we have not and we read it again. Or for example when when solving a problem we perceive that the mental strategy we were applying does not work and we change to another.

The two faces of metacognition

A key aspect to understand metacognition in depth is to be clear that it is a multifaceted concept.. We can talk about this from two different, although largely related, perspectives. One is from its content and another, taking into account the process it entails.

In this way, we differentiate metacognition as metacognitive knowledge and as metacognitive control. Below we will explain each of these perspectives and what they imply. Let’s dig deeper.

Metacognitive knowledge

This term refers to what people know about their cognitive processes and those of others in general. Thus, this face of metacognition refers to the aspects of content or knowledge itself. It is declarative knowledge that, for example, we practice when we think about our intellectual abilities, learning or memory capacity.

This type of knowledge has the following characteristics:

Is relatively stableas an intuitive model about knowledge and how it works.Verifiable and communicablein that it can be accessed to reflect and talk about it.Falliblesince there may be erroneous reasoning and wrong ideas. late developmentsince it appears in the last stages of development, since it requires a great capacity for abstraction.

Besides, Metacognitive knowledge is made up of 3 main components:

Personal variables: This is the knowledge referred to ourselves as thinkers and learners. That is, about our capabilities and experiences in carrying out various tasks. For example, thinking that we are better at mathematics than languages ​​or that we are better at remembering names than a friend.Task variables: These include the knowledge we have about the objectives, as well as all those characteristics that influence their difficulty. For example, knowing that studying requires much more effort than reading a novel.Strategic variables: is the knowledge about the means that can help the execution of the task. It involves understanding the declarative, procedural and conditional aspects of the applicable strategies.

Metacognitive control

Metacognitive control refers to active supervision, and its consequent regulation and organization, according to the processes that act at a given moment.. That is, it refers to the ability to be attentive to possible failures and act accordingly to reduce them. It is important to clarify that the metacognitive process is present before, during and after the objective task.

Metacognitive control has the following characteristics:

Not considered stablesince it is associated with cognitive activity, and therefore, depends on the situation and the specific task.It is relatively independent of ageit seems that once metacognitive processes have been developed, age is not an influential variable. It is a process, to a large extent, proceduralized and subconsciousconsequently many of its aspects are inaccessible and incommunicable.

The main components of metacognitive control are the following:

Planning. It refers to the development of a strategic plan before beginning the task. Which implies organizing the resources and strategies to be used, taking into account the final objectives pursued.Supervision. It consists of the review and adjustment of actions during the performance of the task, in order to achieve a progressive approach towards the goals. This involves a double interactive process: “bottom-up” reasoning, error detection; and “top-down” reasoning, correcting errors.Assessment. It is the assessment of the final results after completing the task in relation to the previous objectives. In order to consider corrections and strategy changes in future tasks.

Conclusion

Metacognition is a key aspect of information processing. In fact, In the vast majority of tasks we observe that the metacognitive aspects are present and with great weight; both metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive control. And we must understand that the difference between cognition and metacognition is a very thin line, which leads us to think in a dimensional aspect rather than in watertight categories.

Researching metacognition helps us understand human thinking and reasoning.. Which is highly important in a multitude of other fields, such as clinical practice or education. Since understanding the functioning of the human mind helps us improve all the processes that have to do with it.

You might be interested…