Metacognitive self-evaluation is partially domain-general, meaning an individual's ability to monitor their performance correlates across visual perception and memory tasks.

Sources and limits

Citation roles describe each study's relationship to this claim. Their counts do not measure evidence strength. This page reuses the published finding; it adds no new synthesis.

1. [1] Supports · 2020

   Is our ability to judge our own minds general or task-specific?

   Although the study supports a general metacognitive process, it cannot determine whether this shared resource can be trained to improve performance across different fields. Furthermore, because each of the tasks only featured 40 trials, there was higher statistical uncertainty when calculating individual performance measures. Finally, the correlational nature of the design means we cannot conclude whether a single brain region or multiple interconnected systems drive this shared ability across different domains.

   Original paper

2. [2] Supports · 2023

   Does our self-awareness change as we grow older?

   The cross-sectional design cannot track how individual self-awareness changes over time, meaning differences between age groups might stem from generational or cultural factors rather than aging itself. Additionally, the online platform used to recruit participants may have biased the sample toward technology-literate, high-functioning older adults, potentially obscuring a real-world decline in cognitive self-evaluation. Finally, the study used simplified laboratory tasks with performance-matching, which might not reflect how older adults evaluate their cognitive abilities in complex daily-life scenarios.

   Original paper

3. [3] Supports · 2019

   Can we train ourselves to judge our own minds better?

   The study does not establish whether these metacognitive training effects persist over long periods, as participants were only tested immediately after training. Additionally, because the training and testing were restricted to computerized, simple multiple-choice laboratory tasks, it remains unclear if the improvements would transfer to real-world learning or clinical environments. Finally, while the composite calibration scores showed clear transfer, when analyzed separately, the evidence for domain-general transfer of metacognitive efficiency and confidence bias remained inconclusive.

   Original paper

Review and correction history

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