Metacognition: What Is It?
As a general rule at Condor Performance, we try to avoid too much psychobabble. Psychobabble describes the countless psychological terms that most people would never have heard of. Classic examples of sport psychology psychobabble might include terms such as diffusion, reframing, and contraindication!
Unfortunately, with the term metacognition, we can use no other word instead. Overthinking may come close, but it’s not quite the same.
Metacognition is ‘the human brain’s ability to think about thoughts’.
This is quite unusual and unique across the Animal Kingdom. Thinking about thinking requires knowledge of the cognitions that exist in the first place. Don’t get me wrong. Most primates, such as chimpanzees, also possess complicated thought processes. But they probably have them, and that’s it. They don’t try to do anything with these thoughts like we do.
Metacognition for humans is primarily functional. Our ability to reflect on our thoughts allows us to be far more creative and patient than most other species. However, from a performance psychology point of view, it can produce issues.
Metacognition: Why Is It An Issue?
The nitty-gritty of why metacognition can be problematic from a mental side of performance boils down to the connection between the thinking and doing parts of our brain. Most readers will agree that once a performer has notched up enough hours of repetition for their particular set of motor skills, then no thought is required anymore.
The experienced surgeon doesn’t need to think “be steady” when holding the scruple close to the incision point. Elite netballers do not have to think of “soft hands” just before the moment in which they receive the ball from a teammate.
This is different from those who are only learning these motor skills. Before muscle memory has been established, it may be helpful to think of all sorts of related things to remember the correct technique. Please note I used the word helpful here, not essential.
Most thoughts, the natural ones in particular, when they occur simultaneously as the elite performer is executing their well-rehearsed skills, will have no bearing on the consistency of these movements. Even irrelevant thoughts such as “I hope my Mum is watching” are acceptable and harmless to well-practised motor skills.
💡 The Struggle Switch 😬
The issues start when we incorrectly believe that our thoughts play a key role in the success of these performance actions. This can play out in several ways. The performers may believe they need to think a certain way to perform a certain way. A Struggle Switch comes with this erroneous (more psychobabble, sorry) belief. Suddenly, negative thoughts (wholly normal and potentially harmless – see below) become the primary focus.
Neuroscientists are still trying to determine precisely what happens in these instances, but some switch seems to occur. In other words, although the muscle memory of the well-rehearsed actions still exists, it appears to be switched off temporarily whilst the blood flow is diverted from the cerebellum and towards the front lobe.
Of course, this has a massively negative impact on performance consistency, and unfortunately, in many cases, the performer and those supporting him or her blame the negative thoughts. But it was not their fault.
Metacognition: How To Manage It
Suppose we use the concept above of The Struggle Switch in simple terms. In that case, some aspect of the performance practice needs to be unapologetically about getting better at accepting thoughts (yes, all of them) rather than struggling with them.
Some form of mindfulness regularly is likely to be the best way of learning the basics of becoming less susceptible to metacognition in performance situations. It might be better to be guided by a qualified and experienced professional to start mastering this whilst practising.
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Agree the acceptance aspect of ACT and many other cognitive behavioural approaches can be a helpful solution to ‘over thinking’ / unhelpful metacognition in the moment, and/or reducing unhelpful meta emotions. There are similarities with REBT’s unconditional self-/other-/life-acceptance for example.
Personally, in cricket I have found that a mindful pre-bowling routine is really effective in ’emptying my mind’, supporting consistency and helping me to ‘bounce back’ from bowling a howler!
You mention that thinking about thoughts can be both helpful and harmful in performance. Are there specific types of metacognition (e.g., strategic thinking, self-monitoring) that tend to be more adaptive versus those that are more likely to cause performance issues?
Hi James, it’s a risky approach to try and class some thoughts as more adaptive than others. Psychological flexibility can only really start when the performer diminishes the importance of all internal chatter. Strategic thinking (for example, from your comment) may will take place but if the motor skill depends on it then that motor skill is vulnerable. A rugby player is perfectly capable of picking the correct skipped pass without having any thoughts about it before, during or after. This is why thought accepting and noticing it so effective. We are not saying don’t think A, B, C we are saying think naturally (about skipped passed or cookies and cream ice cream) and at the same time allow the muscle memory to execute the movement (e.g. the attempted skipped pass).
Interesting article on metacognition. Wonder how well does it apply to “Mind sports” like professional Scrabble or Chess. In the latter, the sports by itself is about mindfulness of thinking ( not just right moves by one but also the possible moves by opponents). Sometimes the mind just switches off in the middle of a game forcing one to make sub-optimal moves in order to beat the clock
Hi Arindam, it’s a good point and it doesn’t have an obvious and easy answer. In performance situations where body movements and gross motor skills are less it becomes harder. One approach is to teach the chess player (for example) that there are two main types of thoughts and they are not to be treated the same. The first group of cognitions are “required” and are likely to be similar over and over again due to be related to watching the game unfold and making decisions. All other thoughts are not needed and therefore are ideally noticed and accepted until they pass.
I am particularly interested in the way in which we may be able to capture athletes metacognition to develop interventions. For instance, methods like Think Aloud could be really helpful in developing an athletes awareness to, and capacity for metacognition. I suspect the best athletes have the best metacognition, and ability to attend to only what is needed?
Thanks Tim for this great comment and question. Yes, the Think Aloud method is a great one, especially for those who need baby steps to accepting thoughts (80% of us in my view). The biggest challenges is team sports, it needs the entire playing group and staff to know and embrace the Think Aloud method so it’s normal. When half do it but the other half think it’s silly it dead in the water. A classic example of modern performance psychology needing to be, in part, group focused and not only 1-on-1 therapy behind closed doors.
You made some great points on how metacognition can be problematic which is interesting since in other professional realms metacognition can be a strength that can help support performance. A connection I made while reading this was the link to “flow state”, which in sports and performance refers to a mental state of complete immersion, focus, and energy. In this state, many athletes can perform at a greater capacity since they are not affected by any unhelpful thoughts that may occur due to their sharp focus and awareness of their abilities. In relation to the struggle switch, have you developed any strategies that can be used in preparation but also during a performance to prevent the switch coming on but also once it is on, how to turn it off?
Hi Ira, thanks for this insightful comment and question. Thought accepting such as mindfulness need to be considered an essential part of preparation in the same way that physical conditioning is. An athlete can’t skip gym session and hope to turn up to the start of the contest and hope they have the muscle strength or lung capacity. The challenge is when the athlete does not want to include mindfulness (often due to stigma and/or it feels less productive that pumping iron or hitting 3 buckets of balls). Here, the sport psychologist might need to become more coach and less therapist.