METACOGNITION

Even self-aware people who know their own tendencies and patterns of thinking, and know the alternative strategies to use, still fail to change their thought patterns and behaviour. This is because there is a difference between what we know, and what we do, and this is shown in the brain.     

This ability to monitor our view of the world, involves regions in the brain that are particularly well developed in humans compared to any other animal (pre-frontal and parietal association cortex) (1). People with better metacognition even show difference in the structure of their brain in these regions, showing greater gray matter volume in the frontal pole and greater connections to and from this region (2), which helps in the ability to monitor and update actions. Amongst these brain networks and regions involved in metacognition, a distinction is made between areas of the brain involved in knowing about yourself, compared to acting on these insights (3). 

We are currently working with UCL to validate our findings and are interested in collaborating with further universities for our future research. If you want to know more about how metacognition could help you in your organisation, book a call with us. 

(1) Shimamura AP. Toward a cognitive neuroscience of metacognition. Conscious Cogn. 2000;9(2 Pt 1):313–23 

(2) Fleming SM, Weil RS, Nagy Z, Dolan RJ, Rees G. Relating introspective accuracy to individual differences 

in brain structure. Science. 2010 Sep 17;329(5998):1541–3 

(3) Fleur DS, Bredeweg B, van den Bos W. Metacognition: ideas and insights from neuro- and educational 

sciences. npj Science of Learning 2021 6:1