What is metacognition?

Introduction

Metacognition is a multifaceted concept that has garnered significant attention in cognitive research. It broadly refers to the processes involved in monitoring and controlling one's own cognitive activities. This concept is crucial for understanding how individuals learn, solve problems, and think critically.

Key Insights

Definition and Scope:
- Metacognition is often described as "thinking about thinking" or more precisely, the monitoring and control of thought processes . It encompasses various cognitive activities such as metamemory, metacomprehension, problem solving, and critical thinking.
Metacognitive Accuracy:
- Accurate monitoring of one's cognitive processes is essential for effective self-regulation and learning. Factors influencing metacognitive accuracy include the ability to assess one's own knowledge and comprehension accurately .
Developmental Aspects:
- Metacognitive abilities develop over time, starting from a basic awareness of mental functions in young children to more complex and conscious control in adults. Enhancing metacognitive awareness and control is a key developmental and educational goal.
Educational Implications:
- Teaching metacognitive strategies can significantly improve learning outcomes. Strategies such as self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-regulation help students become independent learners who can control their own learning processes .
Social and Collaborative Contexts:
- Metacognition is not only an individual activity but also socially situated. In collaborative learning environments, metacognition involves both self-regulation and co-regulation, integrating individual and shared regulation .
Domain-Specific vs. Domain-General:
- There is evidence for both domain-specific and domain-general metacognitive processes. While some metacognitive judgments are specific to particular tasks (e.g., memory or perception), others are more general and apply across different cognitive domains.

Conclusion

Metacognition is a critical component of human cognition that involves monitoring and controlling one's cognitive processes. It plays a vital role in learning, problem solving, and critical thinking. Effective metacognitive strategies can enhance educational outcomes, and understanding its development and application in both individual and social contexts is essential for fostering deeper and more meaningful learning experiences.

What is metacognition?

Summary

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

What is Metacognition?

Metacognition is the monitoring and control of thought, encompassing metamemory, metacomprehension, problem solving, and critical thinking, and can be taught effectively.

Metacognition

Metacognition plays a crucial role in self-regulation of cognitive processes, and accurate monitoring of cognition is crucial for effective self-regulation.

Assessing metacognition in an online community of inquiry

Metacognition indicators in online discussions show increased frequency over time, indicating that it is a socially situated activity that enhances human intelligence and higher learning.

Metacognition in Multisensory Perception

Metacognition in multisensory perception involves monitoring uncertainties about individual sensory signals and the world's causal structure, highlighting connections between perception and other cognitive domains like social and abstract reasoning.

Metacognition in basic skills instruction

Integrating metacognition in reading and mathematics instruction promotes achievement by encouraging students to clarify goals, understand concepts, apply knowledge, and monitor progress.

Strategy Selection and Metacognition

Metacognition plays a crucial role in strategy selection and individual differences in problem solving, with its importance influenced by impasse-based theories of problem solving.

Metacognitive Development

Metacognition, a complex cognitive process, develops throughout a child's life, becoming more explicit, powerful, and effective as it comes under conscious control.

Toward the development of a metacognition construct for communities of inquiry

Metacognition in collaborative learning environments should be considered as a combination of individual and shared self-regulation, rather than just individual approaches to learning.

Domain-General and Domain-Specific Patterns of Activity Supporting Metacognition in Human Prefrontal Cortex

Metacognition involves both domain-specific and domain-general representations in the human prefrontal cortex, reconciling conflicting results on its specificity/generality.

The concept and instruction of metacognition

Metacognition, or cognition about cognition, promotes self-awareness, control, and independence in learning, leading to lifelong learning skills.

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