I am referring IN THIS WRITING to a blog dated july 30, 2015, by arthur l. costa, professor emeritus, california state university, sacramento. it is entitled “metacognition: what makes humans unique?” recall that i have endeavored to provide A compelling ACCUMULATION OF evidence FOR bidirectional, dual interaction between the immaterial mind and the material components of the neural synaptic networks of the brain in my writings. this perspective is in contrast to that of materialist reductionism that posits that the brain is the mind. I will post several excerpts from this blog by costa and suggest that it is not possible to reduce metacognition solely to the physiological activities of the brain’s synaptic networks. I AM ADDING A FEW COMMENTS IN BRACKETS FROM MY OWN WORK.
“if you caUGHT YOURSELF HAVING AN ‘INNER’DIALOGUE INSIDE YOUR BRAIN, AND IF YOU HAD TO STOP TO EVALUATE YOUR OWN DECISION MAKING/PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESSES, YOU WERE EXPERIENCING METACOGNITION. . . . HOMO SAPIENS, SAPIENS, [IS] A BEING THAT KNOWS THEIR KNOWING (OR MAYBE IT IS ‘KNOWS THEY ARE KNOWING’) . . . . METACOGNITION - THE ABILITY TO BE A SPECTATOR OF OWN THOUGHTS WHILE WE ENGAGE IN THEM. . . . OCCURRING IN THE NEOCORTEX AND THEREFORE THOUGHT BY SOME NEUROLOGISTS TO BE UNIQUELY HUMAN, METACOGNITION IS OUR ABILITY TO KNOW WHAT WE KNOW [ARCHIVED IN MEMORY] AND WHAT WE DON’T KNOW. IT IS OUR ABILITY TO PLAN A STRATEGY FOR PRODUCING [BY THE IMMATERIAL MIND] WHAT INFORMATION [THE SOURCE BEING ONLY A/THE MIND] IS NEEDED, TO BE CONSCIOUS OF OUR OWN STEPS AND STRATEGIES DURING THE ACT OF PROBLEM SOLVING, AND TO REFLECT ON AND EVALUATE THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF OUR OWN THINKING.”
THE AUTHOR STATES THAT PEOPLE WITH WELL-DEVELOPED METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES ARE “THOSE WHO ‘MANAGE’ THEIR INTELLECTUAL RESOURCES WELL: 1) THEIR BASIC PERCEPTUAL-MOTOR SKILLS; 2) THEIR LANGUAGE, BELIEFS, KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT, AND MEMORY PROCESSES; AND 3) THEIR PURPOSEFUL AND VOLUNTARY STRATEGIES INTENDED TO ACHIEVE A DESIRED OUTCOME; 4) SELF-KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ONE’S OWN LEARNING STYLES AND HOW TO ALLOCATE RESOURCES ACCORDINGLY.”
COGNITION: THE MENTAL ACTION OR PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING THROUGH THOUGHT, EXPERIENCE, AND THE SENSES. (wIKIPEDIA)