Metacognition fosters cultural learning: Evidence from individual differences and situational prompts.

Abstract

We investigated the role of metacognition in the process by which people learn new cultural norms from experiential feedback. In a lab paradigm, participants received many trials of simulated interpersonal situations in a new culture, each of which required them to make a choice, and then provided them with evaluative feedback about the accuracy of their choice with regard to local norms. Studies 1 to 3 found that participants higher on an individual difference dimension of metacognitive proclivity learned to adhere to the local norms faster. This relationship held up in simple and complex situations, that is, when the feedback was noisy rather than completely reliable, and it also held up when possibly confounding individual differences were controlled (Study 2). Further evidence suggested that the underlying mechanism is the largely implicit process of error monitoring and reactive error-based updating. A measure of surprise (an indicator of error monitoring) mediated the link between metacognitive proclivity and faster learning (Study 3). In experiments that varied the task so as to afford different kinds of metacognitive processing, participants learned faster with post-error prompts but not with post-accuracy prompts (Study 4). Further, they learned faster with non-directed prompts that merely provided a break for processing rather with prompts that directly instructed them to reason explicitly (Study 5). We discuss the implications of these findings for models of culture, first-and secondculture learning, and for training and selecting people for foreign or intercultural roles.

A Neurocognitive Model of Ideological Thinking

“…Individuals who were ideologically extreme were characterized by impaired metacognition, suggesting that individuals' capacity to be aware of and to regulate their cognitive functioning may confer susceptibility to internalizing ideologies. There is growing empirical support for the idea that resistance to evidence in the socio-political sphere may therefore emerge from a neurocognitive impairment in metacognitive processes (Heyes, Bang, Shea, Frith, & Fleming, 2020;Rollwage et al, 2019;Fischer, Amelung, & Said, 2019;Kleitman, Hui, & Jiang, 2019;Sinclair, Stanley, & Seli, 2019;Morris, Savani, & Fincher).…”

Ethical Learning: The Workplace as a Moral Laboratory for Character Development

“…Within organizations, experiential approaches to learning have been used to help workers develop necessary managerial skills (Kayes, 2002). Organizations have even used experiential learning to help workers prepare to navigate and work in new countries and cultures, often rooted in Howell's (1982) framework for developing competence (Morris et al., 2019), in which, among other things, inexperienced potential learners move from being ignorant of their shortcomings (“unconscious incompetence”), to having an awareness of their weaknesses (“conscious incompetence”), to learning and developing confidence in new capabilities (“conscious competence”). Learning from experience takes a central role in this process.…”

To Understand You, I Need to Know Me:

“…Indeed, learning how to think about culture is more important than simply learning about culture (Bok, 2006;Deardorff, 2011). In addition, understanding how to monitor one's thinking and recognize one's assumptions about culture increases intercultural learning (Morris et al, 2019), and being mindful (i.e. awareness of one's own assumptions and mental models, open-mindedness, ability to create new mental models when necessary, awareness of context, and empathy), is a key component for cultural intelligence (Thomas, 2006).…”

“…People think, act, and respond in ways that are familiar to them but frequently have no real understanding of their underlying cognitive processes and motivations. A great deal of learning is implicit, which leads to shortcuts in cognitive processing, resulting in heuristic judgments, automatic behaviors and mindless thinking (Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000;Morris, et al, 2019). Because mindfulness is so crucial in intercultural relations (e.g., Thomas, 2006), GC reflections and simulation debriefs provide an assessment as learning mode for self-insight and studentdirected learning that involves several action steps for both individuals and teams.…”