Part two of the Metacognition quartet
In the first article on “big brains” and effective life change, we reviewed the evolution of thinking, and considered the radical possibility that thinking may not have been such a great evolutionary advance after all.
In this second article, we will look at a simplified view of metacognition – a lite version to help us understand how it works coupled with some practical examples of how it can help us.
Managing the cognitive factory-line
Let us look more closely at the nature of metacognition in order to understand why it constitutes such a crucial key to our success as life adventurers.
Metacognition represents more than just “thinking about our thinking”.
Although the themes can be traced back to writers such as Aristotle and Epictetus, John Flavell is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the modern metacognition discipline, and indeed coined the term. Flavell (1976) defined metacognition more precisely as follows:
In any kind of cognitive transaction with the human or non-human environment, a variety of information processing activities may go on. Metacognition refers, among other things, to the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes in relation to the cognitive objects or data on which they bear, usually in service of some concrete goal or objective.
From this definition we can see that metacognition really represents an executive function for managing our thoughts as a “factory-line” production process – to produce effective and desired outcomes for ourselves.
Metacognitions are also thoughts just like any other – but with intent. Metacognitions have an end in mind.
Here we can see clear relevance to ourselves as life adventurers seeking to achieve goals including personal growth and change. The ”gift” of metacognition provides a mechanism to change our outcomes by managing the way we think; to escape a deterministic destiny where event causes outcome, where stimulus inevitably always causes the same maladaptive response.
The development of our relatively massive neo-cortex gave us the intellectual facility to reflect upon our thoughts, to “consciously observe ourselves” in a way that no other organism can even begin to match.
Metacognitive processes are there to marshal and focus our thoughts and beliefs – to help us plan, control, and evaluate our thinking in order to become more effective in reaching our goals.
Here are some common examples of metacognitive thoughts for each of these processes to give you a good idea of what metacognition actually means. These thoughts are aimed at improving the quality and outcome of our cognitions.
Plan (before executing tasks)
What kind of knowledge do I need for my goals and tasks?
Do I possess that knowledge? If not, how can I acquire it?
What kind of thinking strategy can I best employ to reach my goal?
Is my current thinking model (or paradigm) about my thinking correct?
For example, I may believe that my thinking does not determine how I feel – but is this true?
Monitor and Control (during cognitive activities to complete tasks)
Do I fully comprehend the situation or the information I am processing?
Am I thinking logically and realistically?
Can I trust the information I have?
How can I verify that the outcome of my thinking is correct?
Evaluate (after tasks)
Did my thinking help me reach my goal?
If not, how could I change it to become more effective?
Metacognition-Lite
Not surprisingly, metacognition has been widely applied in many disciplines, including the field of education – in order to improve the process of learning in students by helping them “learn to learn” more effectively.
Here is an example.
Student Julie is doing poorly at Maths and decides to apply metacognition to improve her thoughts about maths in order to get a better outcome – improved performance.
Plan
What kind of thinking strategy can I best employ to reach my goal?
Julie thinks about this and realizes she studies best in the morning, but she gets up late out of habit.
She resolves to get up earlier in order to study more effectively.
Monitor and Control
Am I thinking logically and realistically?
Julie has always thought she was useless at Maths – so she never tried because it was too difficult.
This has started to become a self-fulfilling prophecy and she has started to fall behind.
Julie resolves to put her belief that she is “useless at maths” to the test rather than just accept it.
Evaluate
Did my thinking help me reach my goal?
After making these changes, Julie noticed an improvement in her maths skills.
She worked more effectively in the evenings, and was not discouraged by thinking she was useless at maths.
The extra effort showed her that she could make average grades if she tried rather than failing the class
Why is this section called Metacognition-Lite?
This relatively simple model of metacognition, although extremely useful for helping all of us in “learning to learn”, is not enough for Life Adventurers.
What are we missing with this “lite” model?
The model is very linear (Metacognition -> Cognition -> Positive Outcome)
Reality is more complex than this.
The model is focused on providing the basic tools of metacognition
It takes little account of complex cognitive and emotional factors that impede us.
The model works with surface (conscious) cognitions
We are often unaware of our thoughts and beliefs!
For example, Julie may be procrastinating.
Procrastination is an emotional problem and needs to be dealt with as such. It is often associated with ineffective beliefs about discomfort (unbearable!) or may be a mechanism to avoid potential future “failure”.
Attempts to merely engender a “positive attitude” and “avoid laziness” will not effectively address this problem.
Julie may be anxious about not being perfect at maths.
Fear of failure may prevent her from doing her best.
She may have feelings of low self-worth and depression caused by evaluative beliefs.
“I’m no good at maths and that proves I’m worthless”.
Different strategies are required in such cases.
Effective pursuit of our life goals
As the above examples show, we need a more holistic model to understand ourselves better, and to understand how effective use and improvement of our metacognitive skills can help us to pursue our goals as life adventurers more successfully. We need a model that helps us get beneath the surface of our thinking, and in particular a model that will help us clarify beliefs we may be holding that undermine our effectiveness and enjoyment of life.
Our aim is not to become perfect, but to become more functional and effective on the road to our goals – to reduce the unnecessary blocks and distress we create for ourselves to a minimum. And at the other end of the spectrum, metacognition provides a framework for assessing and increasing the value of our knowledge assets – to convert information into knowledge, and finally into wisdom.
These activities represent ongoing “work in progress” on ourselves – for life!
In the next article in our series on metacognition, we shall review a more comprehensive model of metacognition to give us the insight we need as Life Adventurers to see the personal freedom we can gain from the application of metacognition to our life goals, whatever they may be; personal growth, reduction in emotional distress, improved relationships, career improvement, or simply increased effectiveness in getting “more of what we want and less of what we don’t”.
© Patrick Geever – All rights reserved.
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