Abstract
The self-regulatory executive function (S-REF) model explains the role of strategic processes and metacognition in psychological disorder and was a major influence on the development of metacognitive therapy. The model identifies a universal style of perseverative negative processing termed the cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS), comprised of worry, rumination, and threat monitoring in the development of disorder. The CAS is linked to dysfunctional metacognitions that include beliefs and plans for regulating cognition. In this paper, I extend the theoretical foundations necessary to support further research on mechanisms linking metacognition to cognitive regulation and effective treatment. I propose a metacognitive control system (MCS) of the S-REF that can be usefully distinguished from cognition and is comprised of multiple structures, information, and processes. The MCS monitors and controls activity of the cognitive system and regulates the behavior of neural networks whose activities bias the way cognition is experienced. Metacognitive information involved in the regulation of on-line processing includes metacognitive beliefs, metacognitive procedural commands, and more transient cybernetic code. Separation of the cognitive and metacognitive systems and modeling their relationship presents major implications concerning what should be done in therapy and how it should be done. The paper concludes with an in-depth consideration of methods that strengthen the psychological basis of psychotherapy and aid in understanding and applying metacognitive therapy in particular. Finally, limitations of the model and implications for future research on self-awareness, self-regulation, and metacognition are discussed.
Highlights
Throughout the last 25 years, the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model (Wells and Matthews, 1994, 1996) has stimulated a large volume of research on cognitive control processes in psychological disorder and is the grounding of an effective psychological treatment: metacognitive therapy (MCT: Wells, 1995, 2009)
An important challenge remains: to strengthen the theoretical foundations necessary to advance the study of metacognition in self-awareness and mental health
One means is by exploring and describing in detail the components, architecture and functions of the metacognitive control system of the S-REF and how it relates to disorder; my goal in this paper
Summary
Throughout the last 25 years, the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model (Wells and Matthews, 1994, 1996) has stimulated a large volume of research on cognitive control processes in psychological disorder and is the grounding of an effective psychological treatment: metacognitive therapy (MCT: Wells, 1995, 2009). “I have lost control of my thinking” and “Some thoughts can harm me”) The latter are considered of greater causal significance in disorder because beliefs concerning the uncontrollability and danger of cognition interfere with effective control and lead to omnipresent threat from an internal process; cognition itself (Wells, 1995). It is evident in the S-REF analysis that the cognitive and neural architecture accommodates strategic processes such as worry, rumination, and threat monitoring that are conceptualized as serving personal self-regulatory goals and are linked to metacognition. Several extensive reviews of biased attention can be found in the literature elsewhere (e.g. Bar-Haim et al, 2007; Cisler and Koster, 2010; Epp et al, 2012)
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