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Related Concept Videos

Metacognition01:26

Metacognition

Metacognition is a conscious process where individuals are aware of their cognitive and executive processes, such as planning before solving a problem or self-monitoring during reading. For instance, a writer may need help with composing a piece. The situation involves a writer who is working on a piece of writing, but while doing so, they realize that something is missing. They notice that their characters lack depth or details. This realization occurs because the writer is reflecting on their...
Hindsight Biases01:12

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...
Social Facilitation01:04

Social Facilitation

Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory01:26

Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory

Memory is one of the most vital higher mental functions of the brain. Memory is closely related to learning because it enables us to retain information and experiences from our past to use them in our present life. It also helps us to remember facts, events, and skills, such as riding a bike or swimming. There are two types of memory — declarative memory, which involves memorizing facts or events, and procedural memory, which enables us to remember how to do something like writing or playing an...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 7, 2026

High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex to Enhance Metacognitive Sensitivity
06:11

High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex to Enhance Metacognitive Sensitivity

Published on: September 26, 2025

Metaknowledge may or may not facilitate knowledge and performance.

Charles P Shimp1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 charlie.shimp@psych.utah.edu http://www.psych.utah.edu/shimp/shimp.html.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|February 5, 2008
PubMed
Summary

Metaknowledge, or knowing about knowing, doesn't always improve learning or task performance. Animal studies show that sometimes animals can report their mental state even when performing poorly, and vice versa.

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 7, 2026

High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex to Enhance Metacognitive Sensitivity
06:11

High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex to Enhance Metacognitive Sensitivity

Published on: September 26, 2025

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • Metacognition, the awareness of one's own cognitive processes, is often assumed to enhance learning and task execution.
  • However, the direct relationship between metacognitive ability and performance is not always straightforward.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the dissociation between metaknowledge and task performance.
  • To examine whether metaknowledge consistently facilitates complex cognitive tasks.

Main Methods:

  • Review of animal studies, specifically focusing on pigeons' ability to report their mental states in relation to task performance.
  • Analysis of experimental paradigms where metacognitive reports are compared with objective task success.

Main Results:

  • Evidence suggests that metaknowledge does not invariably lead to better knowledge acquisition or task performance.
  • Pigeons demonstrated instances where they could report their ongoing processes despite poor performance.
  • Conversely, there were situations where pigeons performed tasks well but failed to report their actions accurately.

Conclusions:

  • Metacognitive accuracy and task performance can be independent.
  • The assumption that enhanced metaknowledge always benefits cognitive function requires further empirical scrutiny, particularly across different species and tasks.