The Developmental Origin of Metacognition

Abstract

We explain metacognition as a management of cognitive resources that does not necessitate algorithmic strategies or metarepresentation. When pragmatic, world‐directed actions cannot reduce the distance to the goal, agents engage in epistemic action directed at cognition. Such actions often are physical and involve other people, and so are open to observation. Taking a dynamic systems approach to development, we suggest that implicit and perceptual metacognition emerges from dyadic reciprocal interaction. Early intersubjectivity allows infants to internalize and construct rudimentary strategies for monitoring and control of their own and others' cognitions by emotion and attention. The functions of initiating, maintaining, and achieving turns make proto‐conversation a productive platform for developing metacognition. It enables caregiver and infant to create shared routines for epistemic actions that permit training of metacognitive skills. The adult is of double epistemic use to the infant—as a teacher that comments on and corrects the infant's efforts, and as the infant's cognitive resource in its own right. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A New Context Affording for Regulation: The Case of Musical Play

“…. Given these findings, it can therefore be tentatively argued that the link this study attempted to make between the concepts of regulation and musical play which both appear to have their origins in intersubjectivity (Brinck & Liljenfors, 2013;Trevarthen & Aitken, 2001), was indeed a successful one. However, given the limitations of this single study, it cannot be plausibly established that musical play in general mainly encourages socially-shared regulation, until further research corroborates these results.…”

“…In these proto-conversations, intersubjectivity is an essential attribute for successful communication (Trevarthen, & Aitken, 2001) and thus for the successful development of musicality. It should be noted here that the intersubjectivity required in these proto-conversations is also considered to be the basis on which metacognitive development is constructed (see Brinck & Liljenfors, 2013). Hence, a direct Affording for Regulation link between musicality and self-regulation could be argued in that they both have their origins in proto-conversations.…”

Full Issue

“…. Given these findings, it can therefore be tentatively argued that the link this study attempted to make between the concepts of regulation and musical play which both appear to have their origins in intersubjectivity (Brinck & Liljenfors, 2013;Trevarthen & Aitken, 2001), was indeed a successful one. However, given the limitations of this single study, it cannot be plausibly established that musical play in general mainly encourages socially-shared regulation, until further research corroborates these results.…”

Systems for Theory-Of-Mind: Taking the Second-Person Perspective

“…The minds of other persons are represented from an observational, detached stance. Yet, engagement has been shown to be central to social cognition and communication in human adults as in infants (Brinck, 2008;Brinck & Liljenfors, 2013;de Jaegher & di Paolo, 2007;Reddy, 2008, Reddy & Morris, 2004Schilbach et al, 2013).…”