Three years ago I listened to a lecture on cognition that changed the way I think about intelligence. This is the crux. There are two types of cognition. The first is normal cognition. This is the ability to retrieve knowledge from memory. When you are askeda question on a test and produce an answer, that’s a display of cognitive ability. The second type of cognition is metacognition; the ability to know whether or not you know. Have you ever been asked a question that you knew the answer to, but you couldn’t find the right word? This is called the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon and I’m sure we’ve all experienced it. You know that you know the answer, but you fail to produce it. If someone said an answer, you would know instantly if it was correct or not. In these cases metacognition exists withoutcognition. In short, cognition is knowing, metacognition is knowing if you know or not. Both can exist together, but many times they don’t. How Does this Affect Intelligence? So what importance does this have and how is it relevant to self improvement?The fact that there are two different kinds of cognitive ability means that there are different types of intelligence. In traditional education, intelligence is measured by cognitive ability. For some people this is works well. They can easily produce everything they know on a test. But for others it doesn’t work out so well. The people that know something cold but can’t find the right wordson a test are awarded with poor grades and considered inferior. But does this inability make them any less intelligent? They know the answer. If thequestion came up on a task, they could refer to a book or a quick Google search. In reality they’re just as effectiveas the people that aced the test. They just can’t prove it as easily. The Importance of Knowing what you know Unless you’re taking a test or playing Jeopardy, metacognition is more important to success than cognition. In real life, when you’re faced with a question the first decision is whether you know the answer or not. With strong metacognitive ability this is easy. If you know the answer, but can’t come up with it, you can always do a bit of research. Ifyou know for sure that you don’t know, then you can start educating yourself. Because you’re aware of yourignorance, you don’t act withfoolish confidence. The person who thinks they know something that they really don’t makes the worst decisions. A person with poor cognitiveability, but great metacognitive ability is actually in great shape. They might do poorly in school, but when faced with a challenge they understand their abilities and take the best course of action. These people might not seem intelligent at first glance, but because they know what they know, they make better decisions and learn the most important things. Clever but mediocre people At the opposite end of the spectrum are people with great cognitive ability but poor metacognitive ability. These people are proclaimed geniuses at a young age for acing every test and getting great SAT scores. Unfortunately, they’ve been ruined by poor metacognition; they think they know everything but they really don’t. They are arrogant, fail to learn from mistakes, and don’t understand the nuances of personal relationships; showing disdain for persons with lower cognitive ability. So who is superior? In a battle of wits the higher cognitive ability prevails, but life is not a single encounter. It is a series of experiments in succession, each building upon the last. Learning requires knowing what you don’t know, and taking steps to learn what you need to. People with poor metacognitive ability never realize that they don’t ‘get it’. They also don’t realize what’simportant. This doesn’t preclude them from material success. But, perhaps that’s a poor measurement of intelligence as well. There are many people who become rich andsuccessful by their clevernessand cognitive ability, but as human beings are quite mediocre. Is the man that makes a million dollars, but iscruel and abusive to his employees and family, really more intelligent than the poor man who lives a modestand loving life? I don’t intend to demonize wealth, only to state that it should not be themeasure of virtue.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 17:04:15 +0000
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