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The Neural Basis of Metacognitive Ability

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The Cognitive Neuroscience of Metacognition

Abstract

Ability in cognitive domains is usually assessed by measuring task performance, such as decision accuracy. A similar analysis can be applied to metacognitive reports about a task to quantify the degree to which an individual is aware of his or her success or failure. Here, we review the psychological and neural underpinnings of metacognitive accuracy, drawing primarily on research in memory and decision-making. These data show that metacognitive accuracy is dissociable from task performance and varies across individuals. Convergent evidence indicates that the function of rostral and dorsal aspects of lateral prefrontal cortex is important for the accuracy of retrospective judgements of performance. In contrast, prospective judgements of performance may depend upon medial prefrontal cortex. We close by considering how metacognitive processes relate to concepts of cognitive control, and propose a neural synthesis in which dorsolateral and anterior prefrontal cortical subregions interact with interoceptive cortices (cingulate and insula) to promote accurate judgements of performance.

I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know myself, so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know that, to investigate irrelevant things.

Plato’s Phaedrus

This chapter is adapted from: Fleming SM, Dolan RJ (2012) The neural basis of metacognitive ability. Phil Trans R Soc B 367:1338–1349

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Acknowledgements

Preparation of this chapter was supported by Wellcome Trust Programme Grant 078865/Z/05/Z to RJD, and a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship to SMF. We thank Matt Dixon, Chris Frith, Tali Sharot and Jon Simons for helpful comments on a previous draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, Room 809, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Stephen M. Fleming

  2. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK

    Stephen M. Fleming

  3. Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK

    Raymond J. Dolan

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Correspondence to Stephen M. Fleming .

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  1. Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Stephen M. Fleming

  2. Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Christopher D. Frith

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Fleming, S.M., Dolan, R.J. (2014). The Neural Basis of Metacognitive Ability. In: Fleming, S., Frith, C. (eds) The Cognitive Neuroscience of Metacognition. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45190-4_11

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