Metacognition

The term "metacognition" refers to a person's cognition about cognition, or a person's knowledge of cognitive processes and states such as memory, attention, knowledge, conjecture, and illusion. The issue is not how the person executes these processes but what they know and believe about these processes. Metacognition has been examined from a number of different perspectives and in order to explain the different types of cognitive processes about which a person may have knowledge.

Wellman (1985) considers the origins of metacognition and finds that an understanding of the origins can be based on one axiom and three supportable propositions. The axiom is definitional and asserts that metacognition consists of a large multifaceted theory of mind. The three propositions are as follows:

1) very young children, 2- and 3-year-olds, grasp the existence of the mental world, the realm of mental states and processes that are marked off from that of physical objects or behavioral acts;

2) children of this age and younger also understand much about the distinction between reality and not reality, and they can easily distinguish, in certain clear cases, real from not-real things, being from seeming; and

3) the development of an understanding of mind and an understanding of reality are intertwined, and a distinction between being and seeming requires some theory of mind which derives from contrasting that category of experience with reality.

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an earlier study that metacognition is fundamental to effective reading and that effective reading can be attained through two major avenues: application of rules and strategies, and development of a sound knowledge base on the topics to be read. Gordon and Braun confirmed these postulates. Garner (1987) also considers metacognition and reading comprehension,but her point of view is that of a teacher trying to induce comprehension with an interactive model of reading comprehension based on an understanding of metacognitive processes in reading. The model makes important distinctions between readers and between text types. Garner also applies schema theory involving reader expectations for text input--a schema is an abstract knowledge structure derived from repeated experiences with objects and events and is knowledge stored in memory that plays an important role in the interpretation of new information. This is in keeping with the research of Gordon and Braun (1985), among others. Garner's book provides an extensive analysis of metacognition and metacognitive development as each relates to the reading process and to comprehension in reading. Garner also provides a discussion of how to train students to use strategies tha

Category: Psychology - M