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Metacognition refers to higher order thinking that involves active control over the thinking processes involved in learning.
Activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward task completion are metacognitive in nature. Because metacognition plays a critical role in successful learning, it is important for both students and teachers.
Both knowledge and strategy components are important.
Knowledge is considered metacognitive if it is actively used in a strategic manner to ensure that a goal is met. Metacognition is often referred to as "thinking about thinking" and can be used to help students “learn how to learn.”
Metacognitive knowledge involves executive monitoring processes directed at the acquisition of information about thinking processes. They involve decisions that help:
• identify the current task,
• check on current progress of that work,
• evaluate that progress, and
• predict the outcome of that progress.
Strategies are goal oriented. Cognitive strategies help to achieve a particular goal, while the metacognitive type are used to ensure that the goal has been reached. Both types involve executive regulation processes directed at regulating the course of thinking. They involve decisions that help:
• allocate resources to the current task,
• determine the order of steps to be taken to complete the task, and
• set the intensity or the speed at which one should work the task.
Cross-species occurrence. The ability to consciously think about thinking appears to be a unique characteristic of sapient species. There is some evidence that monkeys and apes can make accurate judgments about the strengths of their memories of fact.
However, attempts to demonstrate metacognition in birds have been inconclusive. A 2007 study provided some evidence for metacognition in rats.
Leuven, Belgium. Images of a sexy women tend to sharpen a man's sexual appetite. But what then? Theoretically, a general reward system may give rise to non-specific effects: exposure to hot stimuli from one domain may thus affect decisions in a different domain. Studies in neuroscience have demonstrated that erotic stimuli activate the same reward circuitry that processes monetary and drug rewards. So, when a man views erotic stimuli, how does it affect his decisions in the other spheres of life?
A recent study shows that men who watched sexy videos or handled lingerie sought immediate gratification — even when they were making practical decisions about money, soda, and candy. Researchers [1] found that the desire for immediate rewards increased in men who touched bras, looked at pictures of beautiful women, or watched video clips of young women in bikinis running through a park.
Bikinis Instigate Generalized Impatience in Intertemporal Choice. Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop. Journal of Consumer Research 35 85-97. doi: 10.1086 / 525505. [ Download PDF ]
The current research examines what happens when males are faced with balancing the demands of a highly charged erotic situation and practical decisions in eveyday life. Authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) in Belgium published their findings in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR).
“It seems that sexual appetite causes a greater urgency to consume anything rewarding,” the authors suggest. Thus, the activation of sexual desire appears to spill over into other brain systems involved in reward-seeking behaviors, even the cognitive desire for money.
“After they touched a bra, men are more likely to be content with a smaller immediate monetary reward,” writes Bram Van den Bergh, one of the study’s authors. “Prior exposure to sexy stimuli may influence the choice between chocolate cake or fruit for dessert.”
Intertemporal choice
Sociologists study the relative value people assign to two or more payoffs at different points in time. Characterized as an intertemporal choice [2,3,4,5], the model projects three types of consumption along a timeline: past, present and future (often simplified to today and some future date).
The model primarily applies to economic choices where a consumer takes previous consumption into account when making a decision between present and future consumption. However, choices require the imposition of value which in turn can be founded on a mix of irrational preference and cold calculation.
The researchers showed that exposure to sexy cues leads to more impatience in intertemporal choice between monetary rewards. They highlighted the role of general reward circuitry, demonstrating that individuals with a sensitive reward system are more susceptible to the effect of sex cues. They also showed that the effect generalizes to non-monetary rewards, and that satiation attenuates the effect.
The here and now?
The authors believe the stimuli bring men’s minds to the present as opposed to the future. “The study demonstrates that bikinis cause a shift in time preference. Men live in the here and now when they glance at pictures featuring women in lingerie. That is, men will choose the immediately available rewards and seek immediate gratification after sex cue exposure.”
Do all heterosexual (straight) men respond the same? Actually, no. Some men are highly responsive to rewards while others are not so sensitive, and the more reward-sensitive men are the impatient ones.
In fact, doing a task designed to inspire financial satisfaction reduced the bikini-inspired impatience, just as feeling full reduces food cravings. Men may want to be aware of bikinis’ effects on their bank accounts and waistlines.
[1] All of the research personnel are affiliated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) in Belgium, Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics. Bram Van den Bergh is a doctoral student. Siegfried Dewitte is an Assistant Professor. Luk Warlop is a Professor of Marketing.
[2] Intertemporal choice. An economic term that describes how an individual's current decisions affect what options become available in the future. The term was introduced by John Rae in 1834 (ref. 2), with later elaborations by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk in 1889 (ref. 3) and Irving Fisher in 1930 (ref. 4).
Theoretically, by not consuming today, consumption levels could increases significantly in the future (and vice versa). For individuals, these decisions relate more to saving and retirement, while for firms, various investment decisions involve intertemporal choice.
[3] The Sociological Theory of Capital. John Rae. M.A. London: McMillan, 1834.
[4] Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economical Theory. Eugen Ritter von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914). London: Macmillan and Co. 1890, trans. William A. Smart, 1890. First published: 1884, in German.
[5] The Theory of Interest as Determined by Impatience to Spend Income and Opportunity to Invest it. Irving Fisher. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1930.
Bikinis Instigate Generalized Impatience in Intertemporal Choice. Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop. Journal of Consumer Research 35 85-97. doi: 10.1086 / 525505. [ Download PDF ]
Abstract
Neuroscientific studies demonstrate that erotic stimuli activate the reward circuitry processing monetary and drug rewards. Theoretically, a general reward system may give rise to non-specific effects: Exposure to ‘hot stimuli’ from one domain may thus affect decisions in a different domain. We show that exposure to sexy cues leads to more impatience in intertemporal choice between monetary rewards. Highlighting the role of a general reward circuitry, we demonstrate that individuals with a sensitive reward system are more susceptible to the effect of sex cues, that the effect generalizes to non-monetary rewards, and that satiation attenuates the effect.
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“It seems that sexual appetite causes a greater urgency to consume anything rewarding,” the authors suggest. Thus, the activation of sexual desire appears to spill over into other brain systems involved in reward-seeking behaviors, even the cognitive desire for money. 
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