Skip to main content

Metacognition

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Feeling of knowing; Judgment of learning; Knowing about knowing; Retrospective confidence; Self-regulation; Test postdiction; Test prediction

Definition

Metacognition is frequently defined as “knowing about knowing” or “thinking about thinking.” The word “meta” originates from Greek and means “beyond,” while “cognition” refers to the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through experience.

Introduction

Metacognition has been investigated in a variety of areas including education, forensic psychology, health psychology, language learning, and even nonhuman decision-making. However, the majority of metacognitive research has been conducted in the context of human learning and memory. Because of this, a lot of recent research has focused on metacognition in educational settings. Highly developed metacognitive skills are associated with good academic performance. By having greater metacognitive awareness, a student is better able to effectively regulate and evaluate...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Finn, B., & Metcalfe, J. (2007). The role of memory for past test in the underconfidence with practice effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 238. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.33.1.238.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, B., & Metcalfe, J. (2014). Overconfidence in children’s multi-trial judgments of learning. Learning and Instruction, 32, 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.01.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, L. A., & Kruskal, W. H. (1954). Measures of association for cross classifications. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 49, 732–764. doi:10.2307/2281536.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham, P. A. (2015, November). New improved gamma: Using the area under the ROC curve to indirectly compute a more accurate Goodman–Kruskal gamma coefficient. Talk delivered at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham, P. A., Luna, K., & Bloomfield, J. (2011). Trace-strength and source-monitoring accounts of accuracy and metacognitive resolution in the misinformation paradigm. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 324–335. doi:10.1002/acp.1694.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higham, P. A., Zawadzka, K., & Hanczakowski, M. (2016). Internal mapping and its impact on measures of absolute and relative metacognitive accuracy. In J. Dunlosky & S. K. Tauber (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of metamemory (pp. 39–62). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koriat, A. (1995). Dissociating knowing and the feeling of knowing: Further evidence for the accessibility model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 311–333. doi:10.1037/e537272012-430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koriat, A. (1997). Monitoring one’s own knowledge during study: A cue-utilization approach to judgments of learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 349–370. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.126.4.349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koriat, A., & Goldsmith, M. (1996). Monitoring and control processes in the strategic regulation of memory accuracy. Psychological Review, 103, 490–517. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.103.3.490.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koriat, A., Sheffer, L., & Ma’ayan, H. (2002). Comparing objective and subjective learning curves: Judgment of learning exhibit increased underconfidence-with-practice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 147–162. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.131.2.147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masson, M. E. J., & Rotello, C. M. (2009). Sources of bias in the Goodman–Kruskal gamma coefficient measure of association: Implications for studies of metacognitive processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 509–527. doi:10.1037/a0014876.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, T. O., & Narens, L. (1990). Metamemory: A theoretical framework and new findings. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 26, 125–141. doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60053-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, M. G., & Tauber, S. K. (2011). The influence of delaying judgments of learning on metacognitive accuracy: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 131–148. doi:10.1037/a0021705.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soderstrom, N. C., & Bjork, R. A. (2014). Testing facilitates the regulation of subsequent study time. Journal of Memory and Language, 73, 99–115. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2014.03.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip A. Higham .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Higham, P.A., Griffiths, L.R., Coria, K.A. (2017). Metacognition. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_536-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_536-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics