Meta-awareness

To have an experience is not necessarily to know that one is having it. Situations such as suddenly realizing that one has not been listening to one’s spouse (despite nodding attentively) or catching oneself shouting “I’m not angry”, illustrate that we sometimes fail to notice what is going on in our own head. One of the overarching themes of the lab is the distinction between having an experience (experiential consciousness) and knowing that you are having an experience (meta-awareness) (Schooler, 2002; Chin & Schooler, 2009, Schooler et al, 2011; Winkielman and Schooler, 2009, 2011). This distinction has provided considerable intellectual leverage for thinking about a host of phenomena. For example, it explains why it is that people mind-wander while reading despite knowing that it is not possible to simultaneously carry on two independent trains of thought. Accordingly, people frequently lack meta-awareness of the fact that they are mind wandering while reading and therefore fail to stop (Schooler et al, 2011). It also explains why various manipulations such as alcohol (Sayette, Reichle, & Schooler, 2009) and craving (Sayette, Schooler, & Reichle, 2012) can simultaneously reduce people’s ability to self-catch mind wandering while increasing their tendency to be caught mind wandering during experience sampling. Other applications of meta-awareness include clarifying the process of introspection (Schooler & Schreiber, 2004) and conceptualizing failures to recognize emotional experiences (Schooler & Maus, 2010).