Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Metacognitive research is integral to understanding cognition, but a problem persists metacognition remains poorly definedand its basic terminology contested. To address this problem, we propose a new philosophical method for understandingmetacognition in a bottom up, computational way. We follow John Andersons principle that complex problems becomesystematic when analyzed within a cognitive model. Researchers agree that metacognition is cognition acting upon itself.Accepting this, we first define the fundamental units of cognition and then define how these units act upon themselves.We ground this within human cognition by using the Standard Model of Cognition (Laird et at. 2017, also known asthe Common Model). This model defines the mechanisms common to all computational architectures modeling humancognition. Our model is then compared to metacognitive theories within psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. Thismethod clarifies metacognition by grounding it both within a computational cognitive architecture and present researchliterature.