Scientific Definition
Thinking about one's own thinking.
Plain-English Definition
Thinking about one's own thinking.
Feynman Explanation
The best thinkers are the ones who watch themselves think.
Core Principle
Thinking about one's own thinking.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Thinking about one's own thinking.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
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Metacognition is the foundation of learning organizations.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The best thinkers are the ones who watch themselves think.
Examples
- Noticing that you are confused and slowing down before deciding.
- Metacognition is the foundation of learning organizations.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Build reflection time into decision processes.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Build reflection time into decision processes.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally — Kabat-Zinn's working definition adopted across the Masters of Mindfulness faculty.
The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.
Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed — a micro-intervention to insert a gap between stimulus and response.
Knowing what you know — and how confidently you know it.
The continuous, accurate recognition of your own emotions, strengths, limits, and impact.
Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.
Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.
Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.
Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Hierarchy of cognitive learning: Remember → Understand → Apply → Analyze → Evaluate → Create. Benjamin Bloom, 1956 (revised 2001).
Wallace J. Nichols: proximity to water reliably shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more creative state.