Investigations of the components involved in metacognitive monitoring and control

Metacognition is the capacity to monitor and control one’s cognitive states.  It is involved in a variety of higher order cognitive processes, such as self-reflective thought, consciousness, executive control and decision-making.  Metacognitive processes stand at the center of human learning, allowing people to control the progression of their learning and the strength of their memories. My research focuses broadly on how memory is regulated and specifically on the use of metacognitive assessments to control learning. I have approached these topics by investigating the information and heuristics involved in making metacognitive judgments, the biases that can arise during judgment making, and the ways in which those biases can be ameliorated.  Another important component of this research explores how metacognitive control processes are implicated in the kind of strategies used to modify learning, such as how much time people allocate when they study a particular item, and which items they choose to study. With an eye toward developing a more optimal approach to learning, my approach has been to isolate and understand the variables that transform how metacognitive evaluations are made so as to rectify biases and enhance the efficacy of memory regulation.