PERSPECTIVE

published: 02 July 2020

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01537

Why Metacognition Is Not Always

Helpful
Elisabeth Norman 1,2*
1
Department of Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, 2 Faculty of Health
Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

In many situations, actively engaging in metacognition may improve cognitive

achievement and subjective well-being. However, the potential disadvantages of
metacognitive engagement are only rarely communicated in metacognition research.
In this paper, I outline three ways in which metacognition may reduce cognitive
achievement and psychological well-being. First, metacognition may sometimes actively
interfere with task performance. Second, the costs of engaging in metacognitive
strategies may under certain circumstances outweigh its benefits. Third, metacognitive
judgments or feelings involving a negative self-evaluation may detract from psychological
well-being. The main contribution of this paper is to integrate findings from different
research traditions in order to illustrate the three suggested ways in which metacognition
Edited by: may be unhelpful. An implication of this overview is that although metacognition is most
Michał Wierzchoń, often beneficial to cognitive achievement and subjective well-being, one should bear
Jagiellonian University, Poland
in mind that it may also have the opposite effect. It is important for researchers and
Reviewed by:
Brian Maniscalco,
practitioners to take this potential downside of metacognition into account. Practitioners
University of California, Riverside, might find it useful to consider the following three questions that relate to my
United States aforementioned claims: Is the nature of the task such that metacognition could interfere
Albertyna Paciorek,
University of Warsaw, Poland with performance? Is the cognitive demand required by the metacognitive strategy
*Correspondence: disproportionally large compared to its potential usefulness to cognitive achievement?
Elisabeth Norman Does metacognition lead to an unhelpful comparison of oneself to others? The same
[email protected]
considerations should be kept in mind when researchers and practitioners communicate
Specialty section: the potential implications of research findings in metacognition research to audiences
This article was submitted to within and beyond the research community.
Consciousness Research,
a section of the journal Keywords: metacognition, normative, metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive strategies, introspection,
Frontiers in Psychology verbalization, metacognitive feelings, mindlessness–mindfulness

Received: 30 September 2019

Accepted: 09 June 2020
Published: 02 July 2020 INTRODUCTION
Citation:
Norman E (2020) Why
Metacognition is a hot research topic. A vast number of scientific papers and
Metacognition Is Not Always Helpful. books have addressed metacognition since the concept was first introduced in the
Front. Psychol. 11:1537. 1970s (Flavell and Wellman, 1977; Flavell, 1979), and a variety of methodological
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01537 approaches have been developed and applied within different psychological subdisciplines

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Norman Metacognition

(Norman et al., 2019). Metacognition has also become of the best cognitive and metacognitive strategies in the
an increasingly popular term in everyday language, and given situation.
is frequently used in, for instance, educational settings The other category of outcome variable is psychological
(Dimmitt and McCormick, 2012). well-being. Some definitions of well-being focus on happiness,
Researchers commonly refer to metacognition as consisting life satisfaction, and positive affect (Diener, 1984) some on
of three facets (Flavell, 1979). Metacognitive knowledge refers the absence of distress and dysfunction (see Joseph and
to people’s general knowledge and understanding of various Wood, 2010 for a critical perspective), and yet others on
cognitive processes, and of their own versus other people’s the balance between the individual’s challenges and resources
cognitive abilities and strategies (Efklides, 2008). Metacognitive (Dodge et al., 2012). I suggest that metacognition could
strategies are deliberate strategies used to control cognition influence well-being in at least two ways. One is through its
(Efklides, 2008). Metacognitive experiences are feelings, influence on cognitive achievement. This would happen in cases
judgments, and task-specific knowledge that reflect what where metacognitive activity improves cognitive achievement
the person is aware of and feels during task performance and thus leads to positive experiences. For instance, applying
(Efklides, 2008). metacognitive strategies may help a student achieve a higher
Metacognition research often seems concerned with what grade, which makes the student happy. The other is through
people ought or ought not to do. I first provide a tentative the metacognitive activity itself being subjectively experienced
description of this normative aspect of metacognition research, as pleasant or unpleasant, which could directly affect a
suggesting that the majority of metacognition research gives person’s current mood and well-being. For example, a strong
more attention to the potential benefits of metacognition than feeling of comprehending a text could be experienced as
to its potential disadvantages. Then I present examples of positive. A contrasting feeling of low comprehension could be
specific ways in which metacognition is sometimes not beneficial experienced as negative.
to cognitive achievement and psychological well-being. In my
opinion, these have not yet been given adequate voice in
the literature, and there have not been many attempts to METACOGNITION AS HELPFUL
integrate examples of negative influences of metacognition from
different research traditions. This paper attempts to provide In some parts of the literature, the normative ideal of increasing
such an integration and to thereby increase awareness of the metacognitive awareness is explicitly stated. For example,
potential downside of metacognition. The main focus is on educational programs inspired by metacognition literature often
metacognitive strategies, which is the facet most often associated encourage teachers to increase students’ metacognitive awareness
with a conscious choice. However, to the extent that the and abilities to improve learning (Siegesmund, 2016) or social
three facets are interrelated (e.g., applying a metacognitive skills and psychological well-being (Umino and Dammeyer,
strategy would most often require activating metacognitive 2016). The importance of metacognitive awareness is also
knowledge and experiencing metacognitive feelings), all three highlighted in the clinical literature on metacognitive therapy
will be addressed. (Wells, 2011) which assumes a role of patients’ metacognitive
awareness of dysfunctional cognitive patterns—together with
acquisition of alternative metacognitive strategies—in recovery
NORMATIVE ASPECTS OF from mental illness. In medical decision making, Stark and Fins
METACOGNITION RESEARCH (2014) have argued for medical professionals’ “ethical imperative
to thinking about thinking” in order to prevent diagnostic errors.
Most would agree that metacognition serves to monitor However, also when this is not explicitly stated, metacognition
and control ongoing cognitive activity (Nelson and Narens, research often seems to imply that metacognitive activity is
1990). Metacognition as a research topic has spread to beneficial. Being metacognitively active could involve being
multiple areas of psychology, including developmental, aware of metacognitive beliefs and knowledge and actively
personality, social, clinical, and forensic psychology, to applying metacognitive strategies. As metacognition has received
mention a few. Thus, it has become a cross-disciplinary increased popularity in psychological disciplines, the impact of
subject (Koriat, 2002, 2007). Also across these subdisciplines, this normative assumption has spread correspondingly. Even
the functional role of metacognition is widely agreed upon when researchers express no opinion on whether metacognition
(Norman et al., 2019). is useful, empirical findings are often used to argue for
Closely linked to this functional role is the idea of something its beneficial effects. This also extends beyond the research
that the individual ought to strive for, some goal that they community. For example, the term metacognition is often used
should try to reach by applying metacognitive strategies or by teachers and school leaders in Norway, where children as
knowledge. Two candidate outcome variables can be outlined. young as 6–7 are encouraged to apply it in their own learning
One is cognitive achievement. This relates to how much the (Fleming et al., 2010; Furnes and Norman, 2016). The widely
individual learns or remembers, how well the person solves held assumption that metacognition is beneficial, could at least
problems, to what extent the person can make rational decisions in part be understood as a consequence of its close relationship
and reason logically, etc. Metacognition could play a role to self-regulation (Zimmerman, 2008; Efklides, 2011). Thus, the
in cognitive achievement by helping the person make use benefits of metacognition could be inferred from literature that

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Norman Metacognition

has argued for the benefits of willpower, also in contexts beyond include descriptions of sensory experiences, problem solving,
education (Baumeister and Tierney, 2012). and subjective preferences.
A different line of arguments suggesting that attention to
metacognitive experiences is not always beneficial, comes from
METACOGNITION AS UNHELPFUL research on mindlessness (Neal et al., 2011). Simply defined,
mindlessness is the opposite or absence of mindfulness. Langer
There are also examples of research showing how metacognition (1992) defines mindlessness as lack of attention or presence,
can sometimes be unhelpful. Because such research findings resulting in or caused by automatic application of existing
may provide guidance as to when one should encourage or knowledge. Thus, it is characterized by cognitive inflexibility. Di
discourage metacognitive activity, it is important that they are Nucci (2013) describes mindlessness as being characterized by
communicated to both researchers and practitioners. Yet, such automated and unconscious processing, or what we associate
findings are rarely given much weight in the metacognition with “System 1” thinking, i.e., fast, automatic/uncontrollable,
literature. One reason could be that some of this research has effortless, associative, implicit, and emotionally charged thinking
not been conducted under the heading of “metacognition,” even (Kahneman, 2003). Whereas some regard mindlessness as a state
when clearly addressing metacognitive phenomena. Therefore, that should be avoided (Langer, 1992) others have argued that
these findings are rarely discussed cojointly. Another reason mindlessness may at times be beneficial (Di Nucci, 2013; Kashdan
could be that common opinion is that all in all, the potential and Biswas-Diener, 2014). For instance, complex decisions
disadvantages of metacognition are less important because they that largely involve implicit/unconscious knowledge may best
are normally outweighed by its advantages. be made mindlessly. Mindfulness can be seen as a form of
However, disadvantages of metacognition may still be metacognition (Shapiro et al., 2006; Jankowski and Holas, 2014).
important. In the following, I therefore summarize some relevant Thus, in the same way that mindlessness can sometimes be
findings from different research areas, exemplifying ways in beneficial, the choice to not execute a metacognitive strategy or
which metacognition can sometimes not be helpful—or even to ignore a metacognitive experience could sometimes benefit
outright unhelpful—to cognitive achievement and psychological cognitive performance.
well-being. The discussion will center around three suggestions, A third example is overconfidence. Studies of the Dunnig–
namely, that (1) metacognition may actively interfere with Kruger effect (Kruger and Dunning, 1999) have shown that
task performance, (2) the costs of engaging in metacognitive people whose performance falls within the lower quartile on
strategies may outweigh the benefits, and that (3) metacognitive various laboratory and real-world tasks, tend to overestimate
judgments or feelings involving a negative self-evaluation may their performance relative to people who perform better. This
detract from psychological well-being1 . I address all three facets has been referred to as a “double curse” (Dunning, 2011)
of metacognition. because it appears that the same shortcomings responsible for
low performance also prevents low-performing individuals from
recognizing that they are making errors. It could be argued that
Metacognition May Actively Interfere
in cases where learning and improvement are unlikely to occur,
With Task Performance overconfidence may be beneficial to the person’s self-image and
I some situations, certain forms of metacognition may actively mood. However, this may not represent the whole truth. Even
interfere with task performance. when learning is unlikely, there may be potential downsides to
One example is concurrent verbalization of metacognitive overconfidence. For example, someone who overestimates their
experiences. There is empirical evidence to show that abilities may invest their cognitive resources in a non-optimal
concurrent explanations of metacognitive experiences can fashion. Moreover, unrealistically high expectations of oneself
impair performance, at least when it comes to experience-based, that are not fulfilled may cause distress2 . Thus, it is not difficult to
“intuitive” feelings. In a series of findings by Schooler et al. imagine potential negative long-term effects of overconfidence.
(1993, 1997), the negative effect of verbalization on cognitive task
performance is commonly referred to as “verbal overshadowing” The Costs of Engaging in Metacognitive
(see also Yamada, 2009). Verbal overshadowing has been
explained in terms of a discrepancy between verbal labels and
Strategies May Outweigh the Benefits
Metacognitive strategies are people’s deliberate attempts to
properties of the perceptual experience, a processing shift from
control cognition by applying various learned skills. For instance,
global to local processing, and a criterion shift toward more
adequate reading comprehension may require being able to adapt
conservative responding (Chin and Schooler, 2008). In contrast,
one’s reading speed to the complexity of the text, and to go
others have demonstrated that verbalization in some situations
back and repeat difficult words or sentences if comprehension
can be helpful and improve performance (Leisti et al., 2014). Of
is low. Metacognitive strategies are generally seen as important
course not all verbalizations involve metacognition. These are
both in student learning and in other cognitively demanding
limited to those instances where the person attempts to verbalize
situations. In clinical psychology, metacognitive strategies refer
some aspect of a cognitive process or its outcome. Examples
to the monitoring and control of thoughts related to a mental
disorder. This includes both learned, unhealthy thought patterns
1
I would like to thank a reviewer for suggesting this way of structuring my
2
arguments. I would like to thank a reviewer for raising this point.

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Norman Metacognition

that contribute to the problem, and learned behaviors used principle impair both cognitive achievement and psychological
to break those patterns. Imagine a patient with generalized well-being. For example, the mistaken belief of the student in
anxiety. Certain metacognitive strategies could contribute to this our previous example may increase stress and reduce motivation,
condition. These include the constant monitoring of thoughts which could impair the student’s achievement on the exam, and
and threats, thought suppression, and checking behavior. reduce well-being.
Therapeutic metacognitive strategies might include keeping track
of the time is spent on compulsive checking, and prioritizing and
planning ahead without rigidity (Sudhir et al., 2017). METACOGNITION AS UNHELPFUL:
The aforementioned cases of verbalization and mindlessness SOME CLARIFICATIONS
exemplify how the specific costs of engaging in particular
forms of metacognitive strategies in specific cases may outweigh I started off by suggesting that metacognition research has
its benefits. Additionally, engaging in metacognitive strategies a normative side. Empirical and theoretical research on
may come at a more general cost: The intentional application metacognition often seems to imply that metacognitive
of a metacognitive strategy could be demanding in terms of sensitivity, metacognitive awareness, and the active use of
time and cognitive resources. Metacognitive strategies must metacognitive knowledge and strategies are helpful and
be learned, either through explicit instruction or implicitly something we should strive for. In the paper I have attempted
through everyday experiences. This is the case both for those to show that this may not always be the case. I have given some
strategies that address purely cognitive tasks like reading or brief examples of times when metacognition may hinder rather
problem solving, and for strategies aimed at improving mental than facilitate performance, and reduce rather than increase
health. Although a strategy can become largely automatized with psychological well-being. I have outlined some preliminary
extended practice, the implementation of most strategies is likely hypotheses. The analysis is tentative and needs to be followed
to require some degree of initiative or effort. In many cases, up by empirical studies, although some already have empirical
applying metacognitive strategies may obviously be helpful and support. To date, claims (1) and (2) have more empirical
improve cognitive performance and/or well-being. However, in support than claim (3).
cases where it is not so, going ahead with a cognitive task Importantly, I am not trying to argue that people can
without employing an effortful metacognitive strategy could always choose whether or not to “be metacognitive” in
lead to higher subjective well-being simply because it would be a given situation. Each facet of metacognition could in
less straining/demanding. For example, if reading a novel was principle be activated automatically or voluntarily. For instance,
part of a student’s course requirement in English, a conscious metacognitive knowledge of ourselves (e.g., “I’m useless at
strategy to monitor one’s comprehension during reading is quizzes”) can be activated involuntarily. At the same time, we
unlikely to increase comprehension, but could very well reduce can intentionally choose to retrieve and reflect upon the same
well-being. In such cases, it could be argued that encouraging knowledge. Similarly, even though a metacognitive experience
people to acquire and use metacognitive strategies would not (of, e.g., confidence) can sometimes occur regardless of one’s
always be helpful. conscious intent, we can to a certain extent choose to attend
The idea that the cost of engaging in metacognitive strategies to or ignore such experiences. The application of metacognitive
may outweigh its benefits has some parallels to the concept of strategies (e.g., to pay attention to how well you understand
bounded rationality in decision making (Simon, 1957). a text), could be seen as resulting from a conscious intention.
However, the application of a metacognitive strategy (e.g., to
read slower if comprehension is low) could also be largely
Metacognitive Judgments or Feelings automatic. Thus, the voluntary nature of metacognition primarily
Involving a Negative Self-Evaluation May relates to the activation of metacognitive knowledge, the decision
Detract From Psychological Well-Being to attend to one’s metacognitive feelings, and the intentional
Metacognitive beliefs (i.e., a form of metacognitive knowledge) use of metacognitive strategies. It should also be noted that
may address a person’s evaluation of their own abilities and self- some of my examples concern what may be labeled “good”
worth (Tarricone, 2011). For instance, a person may—correctly metacognition whereas others concern “bad” metacognition (i.e.,
or incorrectly—assume that they are less able/talented than other false metacognitive conclusions).
people when it comes to some cognitive ability. This could in My examples are taken from research on normally functioning
turn lower the person’s self-esteem and self-efficacy and thereby individuals. However, there are also some obvious clinical
reduce their efforts in and motivation for trying to do their implications. Well-being can, for example, be affected in cases
best on a certain cognitive task. Believing that others are more where a person is too sensitive to metacognitive feelings.
gifted or able than oneself in a certain area could have a similar One such example is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
effect. Metacognitive beliefs could also take the form of ideas According to Coles et al. (2003), OCD is characterized by an
about how one should ideally be or behave. For example, a high increased tendency to experience and attend to “not just right”
school student could mistakenly believe that one should ideally experiences. Thus, being metacognitively sensitive might be
learn all central definitions of a certain subject by heart. To the beneficial, but in some contexts only up to a certain point. As
extent that such beliefs represent distorted or exaggerated views pointed out by Janeck et al. (2003), the tendency to engage in
of reality, they may hinder successful adaptation. This might in excessive amounts of metacognitive self-reflection “may increase

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Norman Metacognition

opportunities for negative appraisals of intrusive thoughts, foster engage in metacognition, it is relevant to consider the following
over-importance of thought beliefs, and increase the likelihood of three questions: Is the nature of the task such that metacognition
developing OCD” (ibid., p. 181). could interfere with performance? Is the cognitive demand
required by the metacognitive strategy disproportionally large
compared to its potential usefulness to cognitive achievement?
CONCLUDING REMARKS Does metacognition lead to an unhelpful comparison of oneself
to others? If the answer to any of these is yes, metacognition
Metacognition is a normal part of cognitive functioning. We
might be more unhelpful than helpful.
cannot choose to “be metacognitive” or not. However, we
can choose whether to apply certain metacognitive strategies,
attend to metacognitive feelings, or reflect upon metacognitive
knowledge. In various clinical and educational settings, this AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
is often encouraged (Wells, 2011; Siegesmund, 2016; Umino
and Dammeyer, 2016). Here, metacognition implies something The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and
more than experiencing naturally occurring metacognitive has approved it for publication.
activity. An increased focus on metacognition could perhaps
be seen as related to the more general therapeutic self-help
culture (Madsen, 2015) and my claims consistent with critical FUNDING
perspectives to this trend.
I have shown that metacognition can be unhelpful in at least This work was supported by the University of Bergen and UiT
three ways. Correspondingly, before encouraging someone to The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.

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Simon, H. (1957). Models of Man, Social and Rational: Mathematical Essays on absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a
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diagnostics, metacognition, and medical professionalism. Camb. Q. Healthc. Copyright © 2020 Norman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms
Ethics 23, 386–396. doi: 10.1017/s0963180114000061 of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
Sudhir, P. M., Rukmini, S., and Sharma, M. P. (2017). Combining metacognitive reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the
strategies with traditional cognitive behavior therapy in generalized anxiety copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal
disorder: a case illustration. Indian J. Psychol. Med. 39, 152–156. doi: 10.4103/ is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or
0253-7176.203128 reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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