Calendar of events

Title: How the human brain thinks about itself

Abstract:

The human brain has a remarkable ability to monitor and evaluate its own mental states, known as metacognition. Metacognition is crucial to success, enabling us to recognise gaps in our knowledge and collaborate effectively. Problems with metacognition are linked to maladaptive behaviours, such as endorsing false beliefs or being unaware of our own limitations. In my talk I will review the development of experimental and modelling tools that allow us to isolate how metacognitive capacity relates to human brain function and supports a rich awareness of our skills and capabilities. I will explore the psychological structure of metacognition across different tasks and cognitive domains, and describe recent behavioural and neuroimaging experiments which investigate how and whether people are able to tell the difference between reality and imagination. I’ll end by considering the implications of a science of metacognition for mental health, education and AI.