Metacognition - Cognitive Processes and Neural Substrates
Metacognition encompasses awareness/monitoring or controlling/regulating one's own cognitive processes. This can be further subdivided by cognitive domain; for example, metamemory would be self-monitoring or self-regulation of one's own memory processes. Metacognition is related to executive functions (EFs). EFs comprise a wide range of higher-level cognitive processes, such as reasoning, problem solving, planning, organizing, sequencing, etc. Research into executive function and metacognition has proceeded largely independently, particularly in terms of their hypothesized constituent cognitive processes and the manner in which these have been measured. Research in executive function typically employs psychometric tests to evaluate such cognitive processes as verbal fluency, working memory, sequencing, switching, inhibitory control, error detection, planning, and organization. Conversely, metamemory research employs a variety of empirical measure such as Feeling of Knowing, Judgments of Learning, and Retrospective Confidence Judgments.
Our research seeks to investigate and constrain theories on the neural substrates and cognitive mechanisms underlying Judgments of Learning (or JOLs). JOLs are the judgments people make about what they have learned. When students preparing for an exam consider what will be on the exam, and which topics they feel they need to study more (vs. those topics they feel they already have already learned well and can therefore study less), this is an example of making a judgment about one's learning. This are of our research investigates the cognitive processes underlying metacognitive Judgments of Learning (JOLs), in neurotypical controls and individuals with TBI.
Our first publication found evidence that JOLs may be influenced by implicit memory factors; antipriming in particular seemed to reduce overconfidence in learning in individuals with TBI, while neurotypical participants remained well calibrated (i.e., not over-confident). See Ramanathan, Kennedy, & Marsolek (2014). The study was limited by a small sample size and in that implicit stimuli were only presented immediately prior to memory encoding. This left open the question as to whether implicit processes can directly influence the processes involved in JOL formation.
Therefore, in a follow-up study with my former UConn doctoral student Dr. Andre Lindsey (now an Assistant Professor at Nevada State University), we have collected data investigating the role of implicit memory in JOLs. In particular, the first experiment provided subliminal masked prime and antiprime stimuli immediately prior to encoding of cue-target word-pair stimuli, while the second experiment provided the implicit stimuli immediately prior to making a JOL. We found no effects from the implicit manipulations. A manuscript of this work is under revision as of summer 2024. Student research collaborators include two former doctoral students at UConn (Dr. Andre Lindsey, and Deb Brom), undergraduate research assistants at UConn (including: Evan Shuris, Jenine Entwistle, Jillian Kowalski, Rosamaria Didiano, Disha Patel), and at California State East Bay (Theresa Jingyun Yao). This research as been made possible by a faculty start-up grant at UConn, and generous research grants for faculty from the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, California State University, East Bay.
A third study (Ramanathan, Liu, Chen, & Kennedy, 2022) sought to identify the cognitive processes underlying JOLs in neurotypical individuals, and how those processes might differ in individuals with moderate or severe TBI with good recovery of metacognition. As predicted by our cognitive processing model, we found that short-term memory and a variety of executive functions (inhibition, switching, and cognitive fluency) was associated with immediate JOL in neurotypical individuals, while long-term memory alone was associated with accurate delayed JOLs. However, in individuals with good recovery from moderate or severe TBI, immediate JOL accuracy was predicted only inhibition, and delayed JOL accuracy was only associated with switching. Yet both groups were equally adept at making JOLs. This suggests functional reorganization in individuals with moderate or severe TBI who have experienced good recovery of metacognitive processing. This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Ming-Hui Chen, department of statistics at the University of Connecticut, and (then) doctoral student Dr. Ran Liu, now at AbbVie laboratories.
Finally, to investigate the neural substrates of JOLs, functional MRI data have been collected, in conjunction with Dr. Andre Lindsey (Nevada State University) and Dr. Michael Stevens (Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Hartford Healthcare Institute of Living. Here participants carried out a JOL task (memorizing cue-target word pairs and making predictive judgements of the likelihood that they will later recall the target words if given just the cue word) while in an MRI scanner. Data have been collected, and data analysis for this project is expected to begin in late 2024.
