Metarepresentation (shaped from the Greek preposition and prefix

Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or ende ...

meaning "beyond" and the word " representation") is the capacity of a mind to represent “a higher-order representation with a lower-order representation embedded within", as stated by

Deirdre Wilson Deirdre Susan Moir Wilson, FBA (born 1941) is a British linguist and cognitive scientist. She is emeritus professor of Linguistics at University College London and research professor at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the Univers ...

. In other words, it is the capacity to represent a representation. For example, a drawing is the representation of something and someone who looks at the drawing would represent it in his or her mind. Metarepresentation also allows to understand other's thoughts. Put simply, a person has thoughts in response to a statement and may interpret it in many ways. This forms many metarepresentations of the statement. Metarepresentation is also the ability to generate new knowledge or meaning through representing thoughts or concepts that are not noticed on a day-to-day basis. The ability to represent a representation of thoughts and concepts is the essence of reflection and higher-order thought. In this way, metarepresentation connects deeply with the

theory of mind In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind). This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different fro ...

by giving the capacity to associate a statement to the diverging belief of another person. Someone without the capacities of the theory of mind would only have limited metarepresenting capacities. For example, some autistic people may have difficulty with metarepresentation stemming from possible challenges with the ability to link a person with a belief. Similarly, some children may lack the ability to link people with their beliefs. Without that, they can't have thoughts about the thoughts of someone else.

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See also