metaawareness

Metaawareness is the awareness of one’s own mental states and cognitive processes. It involves monitoring thoughts, feelings, attention, and problem-solving strategies, and may include recognizing when one is focused, distracted, or uncertain about a judgment. It is sometimes described as a higher-order form of awareness.

It is distinct from general self-awareness and from metacognition in that metaawareness emphasizes the state of awareness itself rather than the content or accuracy of cognitive judgments. It often emerges during deliberate reflection, mindfulness practices, or tasks that require monitoring of one’s mental operations.

Researchers study metaawareness through self-report measures, think-aloud protocols, and tasks requiring confidence judgments and error monitoring. Neurocognitive work links metaawareness to frontal executive-control networks and the anterior cingulate and insular cortices, with electrophysiological markers such as error-related potentials reflecting ongoing monitoring of performance.

Metaawareness can be developed through education and practice. Metacognitive training and mindfulness-based approaches aim to increase observer stance toward one’s thoughts, potentially improving learning, emotional regulation, and resilience by enabling more adaptive regulation of attention and strategies.

Applications span education, where metaawareness supports self-regulated learning; clinical contexts, where heightened awareness of rumination or compulsive thinking can inform intervention; and human–computer interaction, where systems adapt to a user’s awareness state to optimize support and usability.

Limitations include challenges in reliably measuring introspective states and distinguishing metaawareness from other processes. Heightened self-monitoring can alter performance, and some researchers view metaawareness as a context-dependent, flexible construct rather than a fixed trait.