Metacognition in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Methods of assessment and associations with neurocognition and function

Background and Objectives: Research has confirmed that many with schizophrenia experience deficits in metacognitive capacity defined as impairments in the ability to think about thinking, both with regards to their own thinking and the thinking of others. These difficulties are related to, but not reducible to symptoms. One question posed here regards how these deficits are linked to other forms of cognitive deficits, including deficits in neurocognition, and how they and other forms of cognitive deficits are related to the ability to function. As neurocognition is degraded in schizophrenia, does the ability to think about one's own thinking diminish? Do deficits in metacognition affect function in a manner semi-independent of deficits in neurocognition?