Metacognition is the ability to understand the state of one's own mind and that of other people.
Metacognition , also known as theory of mind , is a concept that was born in psychology and other cognitive sciences to refer to the ability of human beings to impute certain ideas or objectives to other subjects or even entities .
The concept, although it is used quite frequently in various scientific fields, is not accepted by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) .
Experts in metacognition
Specialists assume that this ability is connatural (from birth). When a person has metacognition, they are able to understand and reflect on the state of their own mind and that of others. Metacognition also involves the ability to anticipate behavior (your own and others) based on perceiving emotions and feelings.
Among the most recognized researchers of the theory of mind is the British-American psychologist and anthropologist Gregory Bateson , who began researching these questions in animals. Bateson noticed that dog puppies played at having fights and discovered that, through signals and clues, they realized whether they were facing a simulated fight within the framework of a game or a real confrontation.
The capacity for metacognition develops around 3 years of age.
Development of this capacity
In humans, metacognition begins to activate between three and four years of age. We speak of activation since it is a capacity that is found from the moment of birth, but that is put into operation through a certain stimulation that is appropriate in this regard. Once the stage as an infant is over, the person constantly uses metacognition, even unconsciously.
When metacognition is not developed, different pathologies can arise. There are those who believe that autism is caused by a problem in the theory of mind. It should be noted that there are different evaluations to check how metacognition is implemented in the mind of an individual.
Theories about metacognition
Many specialists have defined this concept, including Yael Abramovicz Rosenblatt who expressed that metacognition is the way in which people learn to reason and apply thinking to the way we act and learn from the environment, for which constant reflection is used. , in order to ensure a good execution of desires or thoughts; For Sergio Barrón it is the capacity we have to transcend and re-use the acquired knowledge and for Daniel Ocaña, it is a macroprocess that is characterized by a capacity for consciousness (voluntarily controlled) that allows us to manage all cognitive processes, from the simple to the complex.
In any case, it is believed that the first to speak about this concept was JH Flavell , a specialist in cognitive psychology , who expressed that it was about the way in which cognitive processes and the results that a person could achieve were understood. through them.
From the point of view of constructivism we can say that the brain is not considered a mere recipient of information, but rather it is constructed based on experience and knowledge, and it orders the information in the way it knows how. That is to say, learning is exclusively related to the person and their history, so the learning they develop will be highly influenced by the experiences they have had and their way of understanding and interpreting knowledge.
Learn to learn
In education we talk about metacognition to refer to the learning processes that are proposed through educational systems. Using each student's own abilities to learn and understand their environment, a learning curriculum is proposed that adapts to them, takes advantage of them and collaborates with a more efficient education. It is based on the skills , competencies and management of emotions that the student has to help him acquire knowledge in the best way in which he can apprehend it.
We can say in conclusion that through metacognition we can understand and self-regulate our learning, planning the way in which we will learn and evaluating our actions in said learning situation. Thus we could define metacognition with three concepts related to knowledge: awareness, control and nature .