Metacognition: what it means and how to strengthen it

CareOps editorial team · October 28, 2026 · 9 min read

Mental wellness information and service guidance published by CareOps.

Have you ever read a textbook three times the night before an exam, felt sure you knew it, and then drawn a blank on the test? Or worried every night while also thinking, “At least worrying keeps me prepared”? Both moments come down to **how you see and handle your own thinking**, which is what metacognition is about. Here is what it means, how it shows up in studying and in mental health, and how to strengthen it.

What does metacognition mean? #

Metacognition combines “meta” (beyond, above) with “cognition” (thinking and knowing). It is often described as thinking about thinking, or knowing whether you know something. The term became widely used after developmental psychologist Flavell published “Metacognition and cognitive monitoring” in American Psychologist in 1979. As the title suggests, watching and checking your own thinking sits at its center.

Put simply, metacognition does two jobs. The first is monitoring: noticing the state of your thinking, such as “I definitely know this part” or “I keep going over the same thought.” The second is regulating: changing how you study, or stepping out of a worry loop and returning to what you were doing, based on what you noticed. A study of college students' study habits (Karpicke et al., 2009) framed exactly this, how students monitor and regulate their own learning, as a metacognitive question.

Metacognition in studying: knowing versus feeling that you know #

Studying is where metacognition comes up most. In a survey of 177 college students (Karpicke et al., 2009), most reread their notes or textbooks over and over, and relatively few closed the book to test themselves or practice recall. The researchers proposed that students experience illusions of competence, feeling they know more than they do, and that this shapes the study methods they choose.

An experiment shows how that illusion forms (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Students who reread a passage several times did better on a test five minutes later, but two days and one week later, students who had practiced recalling it with the book closed remembered much more. Yet rereading raised students' confidence that they would remember. Feeling familiar with something and being able to retrieve it are not the same.

A review comparing 10 learning techniques (Dunlosky et al., 2013) rated practice testing (quizzing yourself, recalling from memory) and spacing study over time as high in usefulness, self-explanation and asking “why” as moderate, and rereading and highlighting as low. It recommended practice testing in place of rereading. If concentration itself is the struggle, see how to improve focus.

Metacognition in mental health: thoughts about worry #

Metacognition works in the mind as well as in studying. People who worry a lot often hold thoughts about worry alongside the worries themselves, such as “Worrying keeps me prepared” together with “This worrying is going to drive me crazy.” British clinical psychologist Wells (1995) described generalized anxiety as arising when using worry as a way of coping, seeing worry itself as dangerous, and trying hard to control it feed into one another.

This idea led to metacognitive therapy (MCT). Rather than debating whether each worry is accurate, it focuses on beliefs about worry and how a person responds to it. Strategies used in MCT include detached mindfulness, watching a thought from a step back without grabbing it or pushing it away, and worry postponement, setting worry aside until a chosen time (Murphy et al., 2017). The practice of worrying only at a set time is explained in worry-prone personality.

A meta-analysis of 25 studies of MCT, 15 of them randomized controlled trials (Normann & Morina, 2018), found large reductions in anxiety, depression and dysfunctional metacognitions among adults after treatment, along with a large effect compared with waitlist groups. The authors concluded that the strongest evidence is for anxiety and depression and added that larger trials are still needed. On the other hand, a study that offered worry postponement alone online (Versluis et al., 2016) did not find a drop in worry. It seems important to look at beliefs about worry too, not just pull out one technique.

Catching a thought and examining its content is common in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). To see where the two approaches start, read CBT made simple. If the problem is thoughts that loop endlessly, see how to stop overthinking.

How to strengthen metacognition: five practices #

Metacognitive skill is less an inborn talent and more a habit of looking at your own thinking. Here are practices that work for both studying and the mind.

1. Close the book and recall: after reading, close the book and write down what you remember on a blank page. The parts you can't write are where you felt you knew but didn't.
2. Explain it as if to someone else: say out loud what you just learned, as if teaching a friend. Where you get stuck is where to look again.
3. Predict, then check: before solving problems, write down how many you expect to get right, then compare after grading. The bigger the gap, the more you learn not to trust the feeling of knowing.
4. Write thoughts down and step back: when you feel heavy, write the thought as it is, then write it again as “I'm having the thought that…”. It creates a little space between you and the thought. See how to keep an emotion diary for a format.
5. Examine your beliefs about worry: write down whether you hold beliefs like “Worrying keeps me safe” or “I can't stop worrying,” and ask whether that belief has really protected you.

Practices 1 and 2 bring methods evaluated in learning research, practice testing and self-explanation, into daily life. Practice 3 lets you see for yourself the gap between feeling that you know and actually knowing, which the recall experiments revealed. Practices 4 and 5 are on the mind side: stepping back from thoughts and examining beliefs about them.

Is there a metacognition test? #

Many “metacognition tests” online have no verified basis. Researchers use different scales depending on the purpose. For example, the short Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30), which measures thoughts about worry, has 30 items covering five areas: cognitive confidence, positive beliefs about worry, a tendency to closely watch one's own thoughts, beliefs that thoughts are uncontrollable and dangerous, and beliefs that thoughts must be controlled (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004). For metacognition in studying, the “predict, then check” practice above lets you test yourself.

CareOps doesn't offer a public test of metacognition itself, but you can reflect on how often, how strongly and how stubbornly you worry with the worry tendency check (PSWQ), no login needed.

If you want help looking at your own thinking #

On your own, it is easy to circle inside the same thoughts. CareOps Maeumi is an AI counseling app that runs sessions with approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), helps you write down passing thoughts and practice stepping back from them, and remembers past sessions so the next one picks up where you left off. Get the app

This guide shares mental wellness information. If you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services where you are. Support and contact information.