Exploring Metacognitive Experiences by Simulating Internal Decisions of Information Access

Research claims that metacognitive experiences can be classified as types of metacognitive regulation. Formulated in terms of the theory of Attention as Internal Action, this view raises questions about the timing of metacognitive experiences that occur in response to internal experiences. To investigate these questions, this work presents a method for cognitive computation that simulates consecutive internal decisions occurring during the process of taking a digital exam. A new version of the General Internal Model of Attention is proposed and supported by research. It is applied as cognitive architecture in a simulation system to reproduce cognitive phenomena such as the cognitive cycle, internal decision-making, imagery, body actions, learning, and metacognition. Two corresponding groups of Markov Decision Processes were designed as information stores for goal influence and learning, and a Hebbian machine learning algorithm was applied as an operator on the learning models. The timing and consecutiveness of metacognitive experiences were analyzed based on the cognitive cycle results, and several hypotheses were derived. One of them suggests that the first engagement in a metacognitive experience for each question in the exam is delayed over the course of the exam-taking process.