Also through the kindness of friends: Regional White Matter Variation Associated with Domain-specific Metacognitive Accuracy Benjamin Baird1, Matthew Cieslak1, Jonathan Smallwood2, Scott T. Grafton1, and Jonathan W. Schooler1 Abstract The neural mechanisms that mediate metacognitive ability (the capacity to accurately reflect on oneðs own cognition and experience) remain poorly understood. An important question is whether metacognitive capacity is a domain-general skill sup- ported by a core neuroanatomical substrate or whether region- ally specific neural structures underlie accurate reflection in different cognitive domains. Providing preliminary support for the latter possibility, recent findings have shown that individual differences in metacognitive ability in the domains of memory and perception are related to variation in distinct gray matter volume and resting-state functional connectivity. The current investigation sought to build on these findings by evaluating how metacognitive ability in these domains is related to varia- tion in white matter microstructure. We quantified metacogni- tive ability across memory and perception domains and used INTRODUCTION Metacognition refers to reflection on or analysis of oneðs own cognitive processes. The ability “to doubt what one knows, to deny or affirm oneðs beliefs, to judge oneðs own memories and percepts, to comment on oneðs dreams, to recollect and reflect on oneðs own past” (Terrace & Metcalf, 2004, p. 2) represent several of the core abilities commonly referred to under the umbrella term of meta- cognition (Metcalfe & Shimamura, 1994). Metacognition may be viewed as a general category that encompasses these processes, as well as introspection, which has been proposed to be a special case of metacognition involving specifically conscious content as the object of reflection (Fleming, Dolan, & Frith, 2012; Overgaard & Sandberg, 2012). However, metacognition appears to be distinct from other potentially related constructs such as intelligence, as individual differences in metacognitive ability are uncor- related with general fluid intelligence ( g; Fleming, Huijgen, & Dolan, 2012). Despite the seeming immediacy with which we reflect on our minds, a central insight that has emerged from research in the cognitive sciences over the past 40 years
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 05:23:02 +0000
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