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 asked a 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 without cognition.
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 words on a test are awarded with poor grades and considered inferior.
But does this inability make them any less intelligent? They know the answer. If the question came up on a task, they could refer to a book or a quick Google search. In reality they’re just as effective as 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. If you know for sure that you don’t know, then you can start educating yourself. Because you’re aware of your ignorance, you don’t act with foolish confidence. The person who thinks they know something that they really don’t makes the worst decisions.
A person with poor cognitive ability, 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’s important.
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 and successful by their cleverness and cognitive ability, but as human beings are quite mediocre. Is the man that makes a million dollars, but is cruel and abusive to his employees and family, really more intelligent than the poor man who lives a modest and loving life? I don’t intend to demonize wealth, only to state that it should not be the measure of virtue.
Use your metacognitive ability
So what do we know and what do we not? And how can we tell the difference? There is so much to know in the world that the most brilliant human minds can grasp only the tiniest fraction. For this reason we should always be in doubt of what we know. The closed mind is oblivious to its surroundings, while the open mind absorbs them. Like a sponge, it soaks up observations, becoming fuller and more robust.
But we can’t live in total doubt. If we did we would never act, paralyzed by our inadequate knowledge. We must trust our intuition. If something makes you feel a certain way, that feeling is real and must be respected. Act based on your own convictions, not those of others, and keep an open ear for new ideas.
The most important mental power is the ability to know what you don’t know. The recognition of a fault is the first step to improvement. Don’t try to hide a lack of knowledge. People will see through it and you’ll appear foolish and arrogant. If you admit your ignorance, people will help you learn and respect your humility. For intelligent people this is the toughest lesson to learn. We are used to being right, and consider being wrong shameful. We’re afraid to lose status by looking stupid. This vain arrogance is a great weakness and the source of many problems. To crush it and embrace humility is the mark of true wisdom.
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Great Post John. Really gives light to my own intellectual difficulties as a young lad. My parents figured me for a colorblind because it took me so long to arrive at an answer. I later stayed back a year due to my difficulty reading and following directions. I’m beginning to understand that what was really lacking (and always has been lacking) is my own cognitive ability. Fortunately, as you know, I was able to adapt. And what began as a handicap quickly evolved into virtue as I have never felt obligated to sacrifice knowledge for ego. Starting at the bottom gives you perspective and makes you humble and you do not soon forget it.
Fascinating post, John! I never thought of intelligence that way.
John,
This is fantastic. I’ve understand this perfectly. It was on the tip of my tounge.
Great post. Its the first time I came across with this metacognition concept, and I really loved it. Now I just wish I were a bit more ‘meta’
[…] Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence - This insightful post details different learning styles and how they may affect you. […]
John Hodgman has a nice related quote in Wired magazine: “What most people and societies become when they believe they know everything: incurious, self-satisfied, flabby, and prone to wearing tunics and lounging on grassy lawns…”
That’s part of my post Stifling ourselves with the need to be right
http://talentdevelop.com/2007/01/stifling-ourselves-with-need-to-be.html
Excellent post. as far as cognitive abilities versus meta-cognitive abilities go, the Financial markets prove your point to the dot. Almost all the successful Commodity/Forex traders are those who are metacognitive as they know they have to research what they don’t know before taking a speculative decision. Cognitive traders, on the other hand, have short lived careers as they tend to take positions when they think they know what they are doing, and the markets rip them a new one because of their lack of knowledge.
That’s a truly awesome way to present a great concept, John!
Thanks for sharing!
Great post John. I’ve come across a lot of very intelligent people with little common sense, I am guessing they’ve had low metacogntion ability.
Very thought provoking post.
Thanks for introducing me to this concept - brilliant and well written too. Reminds me of Donald Rumsfeld’s:
Known knowns
Known unknowns
Unknown knowns
Unknown unknowns
OUTSTANDING!! Thank you John for putting into words the difficulties I have been tormented with through my many years of challenges. I have often felt stupid for not being able to answer a question, and then realizing that I actually knew the answer once someone else had mentioned it. This article just plain made me feel good about myself….Thanks again.
[…] John has a great post about Learn(ing) to understand your own intelligence. I believe the majority of people go through their whole lives not understanding the role of metacognition. Meditation for me, is the key to sharpening my metacognitive abilities. […]
Very good post !!
Somewhere I read - Knowledge is having two types - One is knowing what it is, other - knowing where it is.
In the age of google, if you know more “Where it is” and less of “What it is”…it does not really matter as long as you know how to google / reach the right sources.
It reminds me of Steve Jobs’ advice: stay hungry, stay foolish.
Great, John!
Very interesting thoughts John!
In fact, I think we very often (especially at work) overestimate skills and underestimate meta-skills, ie. the skills behind the skills.
Hey John - Great article! When you said “The most important mental power is the ability to know what you don’t know,” you nailed one of the keys to real success in my experience.
In order to be able to grow, you have to understand what areas need the most focus. I call it a “Growth Curriculum.” Be honest with yourself about what you know, and what you need to learn. Then gather the resources that will help you into your own personal Growth Curriculum.
Whenever I am tackling something new, this is always my first step. It’s like the essence of the Zen story of the empty cup. It has to be empty before you can fill it up.
This article makes some broad sweeping assumptions that an overblown ego goes hand in hand with superior cognition. This is not always the case. The whole thing comes across as an ego soother for those who do not perform well in “cognition” specific tests. Lets all pat ourselves on the back for being special in a different way. Not to say that there ins’t any validity to what’s being said. Simply that it’s not as cut and dry, nor as splendid to be a meta instead of those pompous cogs! I find it to strong a word but it’s the only one that comes to mind: propaganda.
Propaganda (gasp). I think I feel honored.
What an insightful and interesting post! I have always “tested well” in school, and in fact, I enjoyed tests because of my competitive nature. (don’t get me started on board games!)
I understand the frustration that people who don’t test well have, however I also have to wonder if those folks wouldn’t be better served in the real world by improving their cognitive skills. I have to think there are various methods of brain training, and specific exercises that would improve a person’s access to the part of their brain where data is stored, which would sharpen their cognitive abilities.
Also, at the risk of coming off rude, I have to say the following. Early in the piece you wrote:
If the question came up on a task, they could refer to a book or a quick Google search. In reality they’re just as effective as the people that aced the test.
I just have to ask how referring to a book or Google can be equated with “knowing” or being “just as effective” on a test. An important part of learning is being able to store and access the information you take in, to be used at a later time in your life. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want my plumber, my doctor, or my airline pilot to have to refer to Google when he needs an answer.
Doctors use Google to diagnose patients all the time. I don’t like it much either, but that’s modern life.
[…] I read this interesting argument for varying types of intelligence over at pickthebrain.com, but it seems to me that a portion of the argument is slightly flawed: 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 words on a test are awarded with poor grades and considered inferior. […]
John, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be using Google. God knows it’s an incredible tool that I’d be lost without. And I’m also not a fan of thinking I have to know EVERYTHING in the universe. I figure as long as I know how to access what I know I don’t know, I’m good. (got that?)
But I really have a hard time equating being able to FIND the information you don’t know with actually “knowing” it, that’s all.
Brilliant. I’m one of those people that has about 75% congnitive and 25% metacognitive. Its obvious when i get the highest or top 3 test score without ever studying. However when i am presented with a question that i dont know off the top of my head, i cant tell the differenece if i know it or dont know it sometimes. So i was wondering if anyone knew of any website or book that could help you build both of these types of intelligences, it would be most helpful. Great article by the way, not propaganda at all, it is very true.
That’s a great idea, Roberto, I’d love to know about improving cognition (meta or normal) as well. Though I’m not sure there is any way to boost metacognitive ability. It’s so personal and intuitive, I can’t conceive how anyone else can tell if you know what you know or not.
well i have found a book that could help possibly improve your cognitive intelligence. I would hog this finding for myself but perhaps someone will be kind enough to produce one that helps the metacognitive. This book is called “How to develop a super power memory” by Harry Lorayne. It seems like a regular self help book, but if you take the time to read even the first technique in it, you will see how relativily easy it is. It does help although i have not been able to finish it entirely. It sure beats developing a memory by shear repetition.
Its a really helpful article on human intelligence. It unveiled some secrets on ideas. I read about cognitive-psycology sometime back, how ever this is an interesting article as well. I’d like to ask Roberto how he had calculated his cognitive and metacognitive abilities in percentages.
Basically I guessed. But I am still a student and thus i take test upon test upon test. So i have a basic idea of the layout of my skills. But i would think testing yourself would be a good idea. Something along the lines of a test of fill in the blanks to test for cognitive and a multiple choice or fill in the blank with a word bank to test metacognitive. But thats just my idea.
[…] Difference between Intellect and Intelligence Intellect is “the ability to retrieve knowledge from memory”[1] Intelligence is the direct experience of reality (paraphrased from Life2.0) […]
I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want my plumber, my doctor, or my airline pilot to have to refer to Google when he needs an answer.
You very much want your doctor to resort to google when he needs an answer. Human brains are excellent at many things. Being a giant, up to date, database of all possible symptoms a human can suffer and what illnesses they probably mean is *not* one of them.
Hubris is an *extremely* common trait among doctors. They are forced to memorize so much that their lack of Meta-cognitive ability makes it hard for many of them to swallow the need use tools in their diagnosis, such as books and computer software (such as google, but there are several medical specific tools that *also* deal with their diagnosis procedures).
One thing I loved about my former HMO doctor is that he would go look something up when he wasn’t sure what the combo of symptoms could mean.
–Michael
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What a nice perspective to make stupid people feel not as stupid as they are. Your example with the geniuses on the SAT exams and w/e is severely flawed because they have both high proficiency in both meta-congnition and congnition. How do you think they become so smart, by admitting the fact they don’t know anything, then going like a retard reading every book, looking for everything they don’t know, and being a nerd until the point where they can use their congnition abilities to determine whether they know the answers or not. Contradictory? I don’t think so, they know so many theories, laws, w/e they can apply and adapt it to the task/question being asked so they don’t need to find out the specific answer because they can adapt to find it using their congnitive abilities (maybe meta-c as well).
I would consider a better example of that to be the typical nerds you see at school who memorize, memorize, and memorize and study till the world ends and do excellent in tests and are proclaimed geniuses and are suppose to be smart while in true essence, they’re just really dumbasses.
My opinion, matters? I don’t know, it might be a view from a smart person crushing your hopes of the misconceptions you hold about ‘us’. Or maybe I’m a retard just being heretical.
Either way, like I said, interesting article.
I guess my point was that there is more to intelligence than test scores. This is just a way to try and understand things, its far from perfect, like any explanation. If it’s interesting, that’s the most I can hope for.
Hello everybody,
I stumbled across an interesting link about critical thinking. It seems to me that this concept is very much-related tot the metacognition, or it can be used as a tool for developing it. Even though the link below is to just an introductory article, you can always google and I’m sure you can find good information about this stuff.
http://www.freeinquiry.com/critical-thinking.html
Good reading
This is a thought-provoking article. It reminds readers that different kinds of intelligence exist. For example, you may have a very competent physician with little or no bedside manner. The article explains why this may be, yet of course doesn’t justify or qualify how you should view it. How we characterize or judge people often relates to their behavior moreso than their job or contribution to society. What we think they know or don’t know also relates to what we think we know or don’t know. I agree that humility is a fundamental quality, no matter what kind of intelligence you think you have or don’t have. Being open-minded and ready to learn makes us better people because this enables us to be less judgmental and ultimately grow based on our understanding of ourselves not according to standards and baselines set by others.
I don’t remember information in the way i used to but I’m well informed about where to get it if I need it.
Further to that.
Go to humanmetrics.com and take the the jung typology test.
You will get a four letter code.
I am INFG.
Then to typelogic .com and keep reading.
It is relevent to you re insightful post
Thanks for the recommendation, I checked it out. I’d actually already taken a similar test, though it was called the Meyers-Briggs. I came out as an INTP.
I’m always skeptical of personality tests, but this one is very interesting.
Thanks so mush but right now am in the public pc so i could not read all so pls i would like if i can have a copy .
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Your original post was interesting but needs some clarification:
You seem to define COGNITION as REMEMBERING; more specifically INSTANT RECALL.
RECALL is a usefull skill, but requires little actual THINKING.
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY is a popular instructional model developed by the prominent educator Benjamin Bloom. It categorizes thinking skills from the concrete to the abstract–knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,synthesis, evaluation. The last three of these are onsidered HIGHER-ORDER skills.
COGNITION: The mental operations involved in thinking; the biological/neurological processes of the brain that facilitate thought.
CREATIVE THINKING: A novel way of seeing or doing things that is characterized by our components–
FLUENCY:
(generating many ideas)
FLEXIBILITY: (shifting perspective easily)
ORIGINALITY: (conceiving of something new)
ELABORATION: (building on other ideas)
CRITICAL THINKING: The process of determining the authenticity, accuracy, or value of something; characterized by the ability to seek reasons and alternatives, perceive the total situation, and change one’s view based on evidence. Also called “logical” thinking and “analytical” thinking.
METACOGNITION The process of planning, assessing, and monitoring one’s own thinking; the pinnacle of mental functioning.
The degree to which one is able to harness these processes represents their Intellignece Quotent / capability.
[…] Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence […]
What shattered my worldview the most though, was the phrase, “the map is not the territory.” Meaning your “reality tunnel”/”model of reality” is not reality (Obvious in hindsight!). That phrase is an arm, that keeps slapping you, unendingly, as you keep it at the forefront of your mind.
If you learn rationality/logic afterwards you may regain some confidence but I think people benefit from this, because it shatters that confidence they have learned so well. These are the types in your model the you call “cognition” types, probably most of the population (I disagree with the model but I understand your model isn’t scientific but practical).
Thankyou for this article, which basically sums up my life. I have always been metacognitive and fully aware of it. True to your article’s content, I am an academic failure, totally incapable of passing exams no matter how well I know the subject.
In a world which measures people by academic achievement, I have had to accept my place as unemployable or limited to cleaning offices and houses. I’m currently mouldering away on disability benefits and living in an intellectual vaccuum.
Rebellion against this waste of my intelligence is what brought me to this site. I’m endeavouring to improve my skills and learn new skills towards finding more satisfying work which I can do from home. Your site is invaluable to me, as finances and mobility have greatly limited my access to resources.
As can be seen from what I’ve written here, I’m much in need of the education. I’ve added Pick the Brain to my favourites folder, so I can take advantage of the chance to improve my written and spoken English.
Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence…
There are two types of cognition. The first is normal cognition. This is the ability to retrieve knowledge from memory. When you are asked a question on a test and produce an answer, that’s a display of cognitive ability. The second type of cognition…
I learned from a “Mensa’ member that there are several forms of intelligence: the ones you mention, obviously, but also ’social intelligence’: how to interact with people (E.Q.). But then there is also ‘visual intelligence’: you know the tests: which shapes match etc. And linguistic (alpha vs. beta). Even musical, if I remember well.
I never researched it - perhaps others here can confirm?
[…] Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence […]
Sjefke,
I think Ms. Mensa was referring to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences .
John, thanks for the interesting post. I have to agree with some of your commenters that you’re putting forward several fallacies. Sure, there are arrogant smart people, but I’ve met some amazingly brilliant people who are completely humble and friendly.
Also, I think your readers would appreciate the Myers-Briggs type indicator.
He who knows not and knows not he knows not, He is a fool - Shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not, He is simple - Teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep - Awaken him.
He who knows and knows that he knows, He is wise - Follow him.
-Bruce Lee
Quote (previous comment): How do you think they become so smart, by admitting the fact they don’t know anything, then going like a retard reading every book, looking for everything they don’t know, and being a nerd until the point where they can use their congnition abilities to determine whether they know the answers or not.
That maybe so, but who’s to say meta-cognitive people don’t do the same. Just when push comes to shove they can’t put what they know into words. I’m cognitive, and that’s not how I learn at all. In fact, I think meta-cognitive people are more likely to read and read and read until they have it in their head. Lots of the people I know (I think) are meta-cognitive, and often do better than me in tests because of their dedication to learning what they need to. I never study because I know I’ll pass, and I always do, but never with exceptional grades.
This added component of cognition and metacognition is interesting and I am aware from experience that the use of metacognition to access cognition can be trained. I was in a “reach for the top” competition in middle and high school where two teams were pitted against each other to rapidly answer questions across a broad spectrum of subject matter. To train for this competition required simply going through the excercise of rapidly answering questions for an hour a day. The questions were irrelevant. What was relevant was you developed trust in your metacognition to retrieve cognitive answers. All too often people build barriers mentally that interferes with their cognitive skills. You can train yourself to remove those barriers.
Another thing I would like to add is that recall is only one of four components of intelligence. James Moffett calls recall “reporting” and lists the four types of intelligence as follows:
1. Recording
2. Reporting
3. Generalizing
4. Theorizing
Moffett then goes on to describe how each form of intelligence is communicatied. You can look up James Moffett’s book, “Teaching the Universe of Discourse”, in Amazon. I recommend it, John, as you stated you want to be a better writer.
[…] Discourse” from his book, Teaching the Universe of Discourse. I recently read a blog post by John Wesley discussing memory as cognition and metacognition and it made Moffett’s universe all the more […]
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John,
Your article is breathtakingly fresh and awe-inspiring.
The best part of the article is the way you have attributed intelligence to spiritual self-realisation as opposed to wealth. Gives a sense of relief and vindication to all the oppressed scientists and engineers who slog it out backstage in a company being subconsciously told that they are worthless, while the more “Cognitive” CEOs and Managers walk away with the credit, fame and money. Any self respecting CEO reading this article should feel the need to bury their head inside sand like an ostrich.
Well done.
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this is very fanstantic things to know as learn in life,am very happy with articles that you people.
[…] Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence […]
Many years I thought I have to know everything about a specific area I wish to be succesful in. I wasted precious time to learn this, to learn that, mostly everything if it was possible. Now I think it was a mistake - the lack of knowledge is not so important, rather to start and act.
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That helps. I’ve been working on things related and it seems everything can lead us to a higher consciousness. It’s a matter of getting in sync with the whole mind which is at least neutral if not positive, absolutely objective, no room for assumptions, makes no judgments only notes discrepencie and has already made sense of all we have learned. it relates all the knowledge we have and, as you say, I it needs more it knows it. We just have to go get it and test the output. It’s a quantum computer and you don’t argue with it. I don’t argue with my calculator, but I do check the results. It seems like an extension of relativity. When you relate to it, it means you relate to yourself, more or less, and to knowledge and people. It’s definitely the way to go. It uses the model of the body with trillions of cells all working together. We need to listen. We will because we have to and it’s so much joy. Descriptive words seem to do it, but so do love, forgivness, not judging, you know, the things that have been aroung for thousands of years. There’s nothing new under the sun.
[…] Why is it that academically smart doesn’t mean you will succeed in life. […]
[…] Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence […]
Thanks , it moves my mind,good point,
Thanks a lot
Tracy Ho
wisdomgettingloaded
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I clicked on the FreeIQtest link and after I took the test, I had to click on a bazillion links to ads. I finally stopped altogether. I hit “pass” on all offers.
I did get my IQ, which it said was 91! Um, I don’t think so. Online tests can be fun but not when they’re obviously just sales ploys. I printed out a page from the web site and if I notice anything amiss, I’ll contact the BBB.
A really great post! Thank-you so much for writing this. I am still in high school, and this really helped me out. Now I think I have an idea of why some very bright people I know don’t do very well in tests. I’ve never thought about intelligence in this way. Maybe the education system should consider changing the way they measure our intelligence…?
Thanks!
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jimsotonna…
jimsotonna dropped by…
Interesting article, but grammer can be improved in a couple of glaring instances. From what I can see, the author is trying to convey what he ‘knows’. However expressing it can easily get lost. The path to communicating ‘it’ is also important and important in the cognitive process for the receiver, and in turn, the sender.
Amazing thoughts, i always thought i was intelligent but never realized that i only knew a bit of everything.. from now on i’m gonna tell my brain it doesn’t know as much as it thinks it does and gonna learn more about every subject…. thanx dude!
metacognition alone doesn’t explain the tip of the tongue phenomenon.
The TOT has been studied using three different subdisciplines as approaches: psycholinguistics, memory perspectives, and metacognition. The first two are consistent with concordance and argue for direct access (a view that TOTs and word retrieval are caused by the same retrieval processes), while the metacognitive approach challenges concordance.
Most research to date concerning TOTs has come from the psycholinguistic perspective. This perspective focuses on TOTs as a temporary breakdown in lexical retrieval. This approach has linked TOTs to other errors in spoken language, such as slips of the tongue and spoonerisms. Researchers from the memory perspective have viewed TOTs as a marker of retrieval processes gone awry. Metacognitive models focus on the role that monitoring and controlling processes play in cognition. This approach views TOTs as inferences based on non-target information that is accessible to rememberers
OK, I look you aspect of looking in the brain but this is useless and can’t be proven .
I look this like another speculation on the brain .
Your speculation might be true but it is still useless .
This post meant to be a for Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence .