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Metacognition is one of the highest forms of intelligence.

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience consider metacognition, as one of the highest forms of intelligence. There are several other forms combined and metacognition is around the top of the list in intelligence testing.

If you compress the research down to the specifics and the closest you can get to an answer would be around something called Metacognition or Adaptive awareness with emotional regulation.

This means a person with adaptive awareness with emotional regulation has the ability to perceive clearly, is not dominated by impulses or solid fixed thinking, can update in response to emerging reality, holds uncertainty without collapsing or falling into fear or forms of delusion and can respond appropriately rather than react automatically to circumstances that suddenly appear.

Human IQ levels

Human IQ levels on their own doesn’t do this, and memory doesn’t do this either. Raw logic and fast processing skills doesn’t do it either. So, a person can be brilliant intellectually very, very clever and still psychologically feel or be trapped. So, from a neuroscience position viewpoint, the most functional minds tend to show the following:

Cognitive flexibility and adaptability, reduced compulsive reactivity to the environment, Strong self-regulating abilities or self-regulation, Integration between emotional and what’s called executive systems, and tolerance and stability for ambiguity.

In other words, in the simplest description the highest intelligence is likely to be the ability to see clearly without being jacked by your own self and that you can identify and observe the inner workings, the mechanisms of your own mind.

Many cognitive researchers and cognitive psychologists, including neuroscientists, would place metacognition very high in the stack. And would argue it is at the top in practical human functioning. Metacognition basically means awareness of your own thinking processes and the ability to watch that process unfold.

In other words, it means not just thinking, but noticing your thinking, actually observing the ingredients or the apparatus that comes together to produce or assist or hinder or advantage your thinking processes.

Observing your own mind

An example of this is a person’s ability to observe and state and monitor – this is thought, this is a thought that I am having, I may be biassed, I can feel this, I am emotionally reacting, my mind is constructing and developing a story or a narrative about this, I could be wrong, but I feel I’m right but I might be wrong etc. That ability changes everything because it allows that person to engage in or steer self-correction, restraints, cognitive flexibility and reduced impulsiveness.

Without metacognition, human intelligence often becomes a sophisticated form of self-deception,

A very high IQ person with poor metacognition can become trapped within their own mental construction, models and never realise or see it.

A person with this ability can increasingly notice the machinery of the mind, the apparatus, the ingredients, whilst it’s actually operating, the ability to stand within the machinery and just notice.

If you ask most people what is or who has the highest form of intelligence. They would say the person with the highest IQ or a good memory or being able to process information very fast and articulate that information back out verbally or in other words have the gift of the gab.

We also tend to admire people who can find solutions to very complex mathematical equations and problems, and we’re left breathless at the speed at which they can do it. There’re also people who can remember endless facts or speak multiple languages with confidence on difficult subjects. But neuroscience and cognitive psychology, see this differently.

A deepening amount of researchers now believe with evidence, that the most important forms of intelligence is called metacognition and it’s a word that most people have never heard of before.

Metacognition means being aware of one’s own thinking or to keep it simple, thinking about your thinking. And as you go deeper into this, there is much more taking place as it’s the ability to notice your own mental patterns while they’re actually happening, watching the mechanism of the mind running.

Observing your own thoughts

A good example of this, is when you can recognise your own emotion is now clouding or controlling your own judgement and noticing when your own ego is becoming or has become defensive. Also catching yourself making assumptions about others and how unfair that might be. Additionally, the realisation that our thoughts are spiralling or spinning out of control. And also understanding that our thoughts are not the reality we live in, but just the thought about the reality we live in. And there lies the difference. Some people can’t grasp that.

Most people are completely lost or absorbed within their own thoughts all day long from morning till night, without ever noticing anything separate.

Any person with a strong metacognitive ability can stand back and observe what is happening internally as well as externally at the same time. Whilst they still may feel frustration or stress or fear like everybody else, but they are specifically able to recognise it fast, identify it, instead of becoming pulled into it or slave to it.

Some say raw intelligence without self-observation or self-analysis can become a form of self-deception and quite advanced self-deception at that

That’s why a lot of psychologists are now placing metacognition above traditional intelligence and ideas of intelligence

The unique ability to observe one’s own inner thinking may be more valuable than just being clever.

Buddhist monk mind

This brings me to people who meditate especially advanced practitioners and this actually is the state that develops within Buddhist monks. In my own experience and personal knowledge of the level of attainment of a Buddhist monk’s mind and the depth they have gone to. Metacognition is just a brush against entry level development. And if anyone knows Buddhist meditation and Buddhist practitioner level minds, this is a nondisclosure, non-revealing, non-boastful and non-show practise. Or no ego display on nay level.

Metacognition can start developing as you practise and as you practise this becomes awakened naturally.

Researchers and scientists studying long term meditative practitioners, have found improvements in focus, attention and profound depths of emotional regulation and awareness of internal thought patterns. It is important to point out that on the one hand this does not give meditation practitioners mystical or magical powers, but it does open the door to advanced states that will come about naturally. As the ego is tempered and trained or should I say tamed.

The majority of the human population around the world spend most of their lives trying to change or alter the world around them, but never explore the machinery or observe the machinery through that which they are experiencing the world in the first place.

What are the levels of awareness within the metacognitive mind?

You notice how the mind labels everything such as bad, good, success, failure, threat and so on.

We are constantly creating stories, telling stories and interpretations without even realising we’re doing it or why we’re doing it. We just act upon that enthusiastic energy to invent things, make up stories or put angles and edges to what has already happened and run to tell others like children do (early programming as kids). Some may call that gossiping or storytelling as everyone has the ability to be a soothsayer.

People with good metacognitive skills are better at recognising emotional triggers and some instantly before those emotions take over the person like a tsunami wave, which allows them to pause, breathe and observe and actually internally choose how to respond. My own personal experiences as something rises within me, I can see the consequences if I react, that could be serious or it could be just petty. And in that moment, if I say anything or I do anything in a specific scenario that’s just going to set someone off then I might have to bite my lip and take a deep breath and walk away and know that the other person doesn’t know this is happening.

Pausing allows you to observe and choose, where in other people there’s no gap, there’s no pause, there’s no gap appearing to allow reflection or reconsideration because the surge or the energy is all compressed.

It would be fair to say now, with social media and stress combined, the attention is now completely pulled in every direction and it solidified 100 percent. There’s no, way out. There are no gaps as most people live in constant state of mental noise and mental activity and their ability to step back is near impossible.

The ability to observe own internal thought processes have become totally lost before they even had a chance to grow and develop.

People struggle with their ego, including all the ingredients in the pot. Anger, defensiveness, fear, anxiety, greed and tribal thinking and attachments to maintaining an image, self-editing, fitting in seeking approval, acceptance, I am needed and loved.

Mastering this ability to actively think about your own thinking allows you to unlock your full intellectual potential, which is why this cognitive psychology course is so valuable for understanding the mechanics of yours and others human mind.

Metacognition and the developing. It helps to encourage people or yourself to examine not only what you think, but how and why you think, which subsequently leads to reactions.

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