Wellness Blog

What is Metacognition?

By Von Bruce ,2024

This article defines metacognition and provides useful metacognition strategies and skills.

A simple definition of metacognition is that it is “thinking about thinking”. A more scholarly definition is that metacognition is our awareness and knowledge concerning our own thinking (Flavell, 1979). You are always thinking, but how aware are you of the content and patterns of your thinking? To the extent that you are aware of what is happening in your thinking, you are practicing metacognition.

 Metacognition is a skill that begins to develop in childhood and continues to influence our development throughout our lives (Flavell, 1979). In fact, our awareness of our own cognition plays a central role in how we learn. Think about it: if you had no awareness of your thinking patterns, would you be able to make the changes you need to approach a problem in a more effective way?

 We are engaged in metacognition all the time because we are not complete masters of our minds and often need to redirect our attention or change the way we focus on things. In this sense, there are two processes in metacognition – monitoring our thinking and controlling our thinking (Flavell, 1979). Most efforts to control our thinking can be thought of as falling under the umbrella of executive functioning skills (Carruthers, 2014). For example, try to imagine all the “thinking about thinking” skills that it requires to effectively listen to a college lecture and write down the “important stuff.” What information matters? What doesn’t? How is this related to what we’ve already learned? Is that the sort of information that was on the last test?

Why Metacognition Is Important

Understanding metacognition is important for several reasons, chief among them is the fact that when awake, we are almost always engaged in metacognition (Flavell, 1979). Perhaps the reason so many people find meditation relaxing is that they experience periods without metacognition – time when they are not actively observing themselves, but simply having their experience.

 Not only is metacognition a constant presence in our lives, but it is fundamental to making all adjustments in our lives. Without the ability to monitor and control our own thinking, we would have no cognitive flexibility (Dunlosky & Metcalfe, 2008).

Strategies

When we are consciously using metacognition to be more effective out in the world, we are engaging in the use of metacognitive strategies (Efklides, 2011).

One essential metacognitive strategy – at least in the eyes of therapists – is the ability to monitor the relationship between one’s cognitions and one’s emotions and then intervene successfully to change one’s cognitions (Nelson et al., 1999). In fact, this kind of metacognitive strategy forms the backbone of much of modern psychotherapy.

​We can look at most metacognitive strategies as falling into one of three categories (Dirkes, 1985):

1. Connecting new information to things we already know—like when we put a friend’s recent grumpiness in the context of his having gotten a bad performance review at work.
2. Selecting thinking strategies—choosing to apply a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset to experiences
3. Planning, monitoring, and evaluating thinking—choosing to monitor judgmental thoughts, then reflect after the fact on how well the efforts to reframe went.

In Summary

Metacognition is a critical component of self-awareness. We have all developed metacognitive skills with time, and we will hopefully continue to grow in these abilities with time. In fact, one of the biggest determinants in personal growth is our willingness to examine our personal patterns of thinking and feeling. Only through metacognition do we realize how to change our patterns to become more effective problem-solvers.

​It can be very humbling to catch ourselves going through the same cognitive motions again and again; I hope that you can be gentle with yourself when you notice yourself stuck in a pattern of thought or at a loss for what to do next. Those moments are the perfect opportunities to engage in metacognitive strategies. There is no learning without stepping outside our usual patterns and pre-existing ways of thinking.

References

• Carruthers, P. (2014). Two concepts of metacognition. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 128(2), 138-139.
• Dirkes, M. A. (1985). Metacognition: Students in charge of their thinking. Roeper Review, 8(2), 96-100.
• Dunlosky, J., & Metcalfe, J. (2008). Metacognition. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
• Efklides, A. (2011). Interactions of metacognition with motivation and affect in self-regulated learning: The MASRL model. Educational Psychologist, 46, 6–25. doi:10.1080/00461520.2 011.538645
• Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906–911.
• Nelson, T. O., Stuart, R. B., Howard, C., & Crowley, M. (1999). Metacognition and clinical psychology: A preliminary framework for research and practice. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory & Practice, 6(2), 73-79.