You Can Make Change, For a Change – Now
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/18
Dr. Janet Metcalfe is the principal investigator in the Metacognition & Memory Lab. Her research is focused on metacognitive abilities, which is how people know what they know. It is evolutionarily advantageous for us, and for self-control. Here we discuss her background and research, session 3.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture?
Dr. Janet Metcalfe: Oh, enormous responsibility! In terms of keeping everything really honest, the pure sciences, the quest for truth is what it is all about. It is not the quest for money. It is not the quest for fame. It is not the quest for personal anything. It is the quest for truth. That is an extremely valuable contribution.
I love being at Columbia and many of the Canadian universities, the liberal arts, and the value of culture. It is treasured in the universities. It’s so important that we treasure that. I mean, I go to a lecture and an hour and a half on just on the meaning of a leaf in one painting made by Leonardo.
The fact that we have gotten people that were supporting the intense investigation and thinking of details about how things work and the meaning of being a human being. That is what the university is about. Of course, we need money and food. But that core mission is so important for what it means to be a human being. We have huge responsibilities! (Laughs)
Jacobsen: If you have a take-home message about your research, especially related to recent research on metacognitive abilities in relation to learning, what would you have for people to understand?
Metcalfe: Oh my goodness, I don’t know. Metacognition is kind of the highest level of thinking that you have got. And the ability to think about your thinking gives you the possibility to control your thinking and to take responsibility – for you to be free.
For you to be responsible for shaping your own mind, it gives you that little prod. In that, you can take control of your own mind and future. It is a little bit, but you have this possibility to change yourself. I think that is a fascinating possibility and people can because we have got this possibility – and maybe the other primates have it or so it looks, but most animals do not have that capability.
However, you have the possibility to change yourself in a good direction.
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