Most of what your brain does during the day falls under cognition. Things like making decisions and solving problems are examples of cognitive functions that get you through daily life.
Metacognition is the part that oversees how well those processes are working. It’s responsible for monitoring whether your thinking is on track and adjusting your approach when it isn’t.
Metacognition is strongly linked to mental health. When it’s working well, you’re more likely to notice unhelpful thinking patterns and respond to them effectively. When it isn’t, these patterns can become more difficult to manage and may contribute to conditions like anxiety and depression.
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Metacognition refers to the mental processes involved in monitoring and interpreting your own thinking. The term was coined in 1979 by cognitive psychology researcher John Flavell, who defined it as cognition about cognitive phenomena.[1] Put simply, it’s the ability to think about your own thinking.
You use metacognition all the time without noticing, for example:
Metacognition helps people learn, solve problems, make decisions, regulate emotions, and adapt to challenges. It acts like a mental management system that oversees other cognitive processes.
Executive function is your brain’s management system, which handles things like:
Metacognition overlaps with this because monitoring and regulating your own thinking is part of what executive function does. But some studies have reported that the overlap is far smaller than it may appear at first.
Research that tested the relationship between metacognitive monitoring and the three core executive functions found that metacognition only correlated with one of them: updating.[2] Updating is the ability to refresh information in your working memory. It wasn’t linked with inhibition or switching tasks, and it didn’t correlate with more complex executive functioning tasks either.[2]
This makes sense on reflection. Monitoring your own thinking means holding information about your current state in mind and refreshing it as things change. This is exactly what updating does. But the other executive functions, like suppressing a response or switching between tasks, appear to operate separately.
Metacognition operates through two main processes, and understanding both helps explain how it connects to mental health.
Metacognitive knowledge is your awareness of your own thinking style and strategies. It includes knowing your strengths and weaknesses as a thinker and recognizing when certain strategies work best.
For example, you might know that you remember information better by drawing diagrams, or that complex math problems require careful step-by-step planning.
This kind of self-reflection guides how you approach learning or problem-solving. Psychologist Flavell broke metacognitive knowledge into three sub-types:
This refers to the process of managing your thinking in real time. It involves the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of cognitive strategies as you work. For example:
Metacognition matters for mental health because it sits at the heart of how you relate to your own internal experiences.
If you’re able to recognize what you’re thinking and feeling as it happens, you have a better chance of responding with purpose, rather than reacting automatically.
The best way to understand metacognition’s importance is to split it into two areas:
For example, someone with healthy metacognitive skills will be able to:[3]
Someone with poor metacognitive functioning might have trouble with:[4]
But this is not to say that there are two distinct types of people sitting on either side of healthy or unhealthy metacognition. We’re all prone to the occasional worry over something that’s not worth worrying over, just as someone who ruminates often is perfectly capable of monitoring their own thinking patterns.
Most of us move between the two depending on the day, our stress levels, and how tired we are. This is sometimes called psychological flexibility.
Failures in metacognition can present across a wide range of conditions and in different ways. Below, we explore mental health conditions that are linked with these kinds of thinking difficulties.
Rumination is one of the core metacognition failures in depression, and research finds that those with recurrent depression hold strong beliefs that ruminating is useful.[5] They believe that analyzing why they feel depressed will eventually lead to the answers they need to stop feeling low.[5]
The problem here is that rumination deepens the depression by keeping you locked in a self-focused, negative thinking loop. You turn the same painful question over and over, and though it feels like you’re working towards a solution, the dwelling gives the depression fuel. The metacognitive failure here is that you can’t see the process as harmful because you believe it’s helping you.
The metacognitive model of anxiety shows two types of worry:[6]
Thoughts like “My worrying is out of control,” or “If I don’t stop worrying, something terrible will happen” are common thoughts in those with clinical anxiety.
This presents a thinking trap. You worry about a problem, then you worry about the fact that you’re worrying, which increases distress, which then generates more worry. Each loop makes the next one feel more justified, so the pattern becomes hard to break from the inside.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves a specific way that a person interprets their own thoughts. The metacognitive concept here is thought fusion, where having a thought feels as though you have to act on it.[7]
For example, an intrusive thought about harm in someone with OCD isn’t brushed off the way someone without the condition would do it. Instead, the thought registers as though the person is dangerous. The response here is to try to neutralize the thought through compulsions. When this works, even though only temporarily, it confirms the belief that the thought was dangerous in the first place.[7]
Research suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is linked not only to traumatic memories themselves, but also to how people think about those memories. Those with PTSD may develop unhelpful metacognitive beliefs, like viewing intrusive thoughts as dangerous or feeling as though they need to keep constantly analyzing them.
These beliefs can lead to coping strategies like:
Studies support this, showing that greater metacognitive difficulties are associated with greater PTSD symptom severity.[8]
Metacognitive disruptions in psychosis are far more complex than in most other conditions.
Research shows that people with schizophrenia struggle with forming internal representations of themselves and the people around them.[9]
This affects four different areas of metacognition:
There is also evidence to suggest that metacognitive failures may contribute to delusional beliefs and even hallucinations in psychosis. This shows just how important improving metacognition can be for those with serious mental health conditions.[10]
AMFM is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
If you’re dealing with one of the conditions covered above, the natural question is whether mental health treatment should focus on the metacognitive issues or the condition itself. The answer is usually both, especially given how connected the two are.
Medications may be considered, as they can address the biological side of some mental health conditions. For example, antidepressants can reduce the intensity of depression symptoms enough to create space for therapeutic work to begin.
But medication on its own doesn’t change how you relate to your own thinking. This is where different psychotherapy approaches come in, as they’re able to handle the metacognitive part in a different way.
Approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may be considered, alongside more directive therapies like metacognitive therapy (MCT).
Metacognitive therapy takes the view that if the beliefs you hold about your thinking are what fuel your condition, then changing those beliefs should be the primary target of treatment.[11]
MCT starts with a shared formulation where your therapist maps out how your responses keep the problem going, rather than the thoughts themselves.
This step is important because it moves the target from “fixing” what you think to changing how you respond when a difficult thought appears.
Within MCT, two core techniques do most of the practical work.[11]
Attention training is an exercise that builds your ability to direct attention flexibly. You might practice:
The goal here is to build evidence that your attention can be controlled, which then, in theory, shows you that your thinking in general is controllable. For someone who feels at the mercy of their own mind, that evidence can be a real turning point. It reframes thinking as something they act on rather than something that happens to them.
Detached mindfulness is a little different from mindfulness in the traditional sense. It’s a metacognitive stance where the thought is present, but you decline to respond to it.
Worry postponement exercises help build this skill by showing you that delaying your response doesn’t produce the catastrophic outcome your metacognitive beliefs lead you to expect.
In practice, you set aside a fixed time later in the day to worry, and by the time it arrives, the urgency has usually faded. This teaches your mind that the worry was never as pressing as it felt.
A Mission For Michael (AMFM) provides treatment for adults experiencing various conditions. Schizophrenia support is a phone call away – call 866-478-4383 to learn about our current treatment options.
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If you’ve recognized any of the thinking patterns covered here in yourself, professional support could help. Serious metacognitive failures don’t resolve on their own, and the longer they’re left unchecked, the more embedded the beliefs driving them can become.
AMFM (A Mission For Michael) Mental Health Treatment provides mental health treatment for adults with the conditions where these patterns are most prominent, including:
Our team of expert clinicians believes in treatment persistence and will personalize your treatment plan so you can achieve lasting, life-changing outcomes.
For those who would benefit from a full-time therapeutic environment, we offer residential programs at our locations across the U.S. We also offer multiple levels of outpatient treatment programs for those who need flexibility around their daily responsibilities.
AMFM Mental Health Treatment accepts insurance and is in-network with most major providers. To check your insurance coverage for mental health care, simply complete our confidential online verification form or call us at 866-478-4383.
Reach out to us if you would like to start the admissions process or learn more about how we can support your mental well-being. Our compassionate team is available 24/7 to answer your questions and provide guidance with no obligation.
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