Metacognition and Decision Making: between First and Third Person Perspective

Abstract

The aim of the article is firstly, to show how metacognitive monitoring, control (regulation) and metaknowledge are important in guiding decision making and secondly, to argue that researching experience is necessary for a more complete understanding of the role of metacognition in decision making. In the context of dual process theories of cognition it is sometimes proposed that people usually do not deliberate or reflect on their judgments and decisions, but rather follow their intuitions. Some metacognition researchers propose that metacognitive experiences (such as feeling of rightness or difficulty) play an important role in determining whether we change our intuitive responses for more deliberate, reflective reasoning and decision making. Although metacognition researchers' contribution to understanding the role of metacognitive experiences in decision making is valuable, their studies face some serious problems. Furthermore, it is not only our experiences, but also our evaluations of those experiences (metacognitive judgments) and our metacognitive knowledge that influence our judgments and choices. I argue that if we want to understand how and why people decide, we should be studying the entanglement of all these influencing factors from first and third person perspective. We should also conduct more thorough first person research. I conclude the article by arguing that first and third person perspective on metacognition and decision making should mutually constrain and inform each other about insights and contradictions that arise between them.

Gender Difference in Early Occupational Attainment: The Roles of Study Field, Gender Norms, and Gender Attitudes

“…"Hiring discrimination", or "biased hiring", defined as the differential treatment on recruitment, allocation and retention through institutionalized personnel procedures, could offer an alternative explanation (England 1992;Reskin 2003;Roos and Reskin 1984). It is argued that, hiring decisions that are often coupled with bias or stereotypes tend to be quasi-rational (Strle 2012). As social role theory predicted, men's role is often connected with money earner, whereas women's role is often linked with care-taker (Eagly 1987).…”

Marital status, gender, and sexual orientation: Implications for employment hiring decisions.

“…Decision-making literature indicates that most decisions tend to be quasi-rational and include both intuition and analysis (Strle, 2012). Intuitive assumptions often involve stereotypes, and employers may use this information to determine whether or not to hire an individual (Beattie, 1991; Nadler & Stockdale, 2012).…”

“…“Ms.,” “Mrs.”) often make marital status easily identifiable (Dion & Schuller, 1990; Malcolmson & Sinclair, 2007). Because the decision-making literature indicates that most decisions tend to be quasi-rational (Strle, 2012) (i.e., include both intuition and analysis), biases may influence employment decisions. For example, intuitive assumptions often involve stereotypes, and an employer might use stereotypes based on marital status to determine whether or not to hire an individual (Beattie, 1991; Nadler & Stockdale, 2012).…”

Feeling and Thinking about the Future: Offline Metacognition in Decision-Making

“…There is ample empirical evidence supporting the claim that metacognition, as online monitoring and control of cognition and behaviour, is essential to judgment and decision-making [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. While I agree with the claim that metacognition as online monitoring and control is crucial to our decision-making, I will attempt to show that our ability to refer to our own mind in an offline manner is at least as important to our decisionmaking as the former.…”