Higher order thoughts in action: consciousness as an unconscious re-description process

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Computational Psychiatry

Background:

• Metacognition is traditionally viewed as a conscious reflection on mental states.
• This perspective overlooks potential unconscious and automatic underpinnings of metacognitive processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a new framework for understanding metacognition as a form of representational re-description.
• To explore the neural mechanisms and computational models underlying unconscious metacognition.
• To investigate the relationship between metacognition, awareness, self-awareness, and social cognition.

Main Methods:

• Development and extension of neural network simulations to model representational re-description.
• Comparison of the proposed model with signal detection theory.
• Review of neurological evidence related to awareness and social cognition.

Main Results:

• Metacognition can be conceptualized as an emergent property of unconscious, automatic representational re-description processes.
• Three predictive loops (inner, perception-action, self-other) form a hierarchical system for anticipating action consequences.
• The proposed dual-route model suggests meta-representations operate independently of the primary causal chain, contrasting with signal detection theory.

Conclusions:

• Enactive metacognition, driven by unconscious representational re-description, offers a novel perspective on cognitive processes.
• The findings suggest shared neural mechanisms underlie awareness, self-awareness, and social cognition.
• This framework provides a basis for further computational and neurological investigations into metacognition.