Métacognitives

Métacognitives, often translated as metacognition, refers to the awareness and regulation of one’s own thinking processes. It encompasses knowledge about cognition (understanding strategies, tasks, and personal limits) and regulation of cognition (planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s approach to learning and problem solving). A third aspect, metacognitive experiences, involves the subjective feelings and judgments that accompany thinking, such as confidence or perceived difficulty.

Metacognitive knowledge is commonly divided into declarative (knowing that), procedural (knowing how), and conditional (knowing when and why to use a strategy). Metacognitive regulation includes planning (deciding which strategies to use and how to allocate resources), monitoring (checking ongoing performance), and control (adjusting approaches in response to monitoring). These processes develop through education, feedback, and practice and can be explicit (taught strategies) or implicit.

Assessing métacognitives in research and practice often relies on think-aloud protocols, retrospective self-reports, and calibration tasks that compare judgments with actual performance. In education, fostering metacognition improves reading comprehension, problem solving, and independent learning through practices such as self-questioning, goal setting, and self-explanation. In clinical and organizational contexts, metacognitive training aims to enhance self-regulation and adaptive thinking.

In psychology and related fields, metacognition informs theories of executive function and supports the design of interventions and tools that help people reflect on and regulate their cognitive processes. Ongoing research seeks reliable measurement methods, developmental trajectories, and ways to translate metacognitive insights into practice.