A clinical and educational phenomenon has been drawing the attention of neuroscientists and educators: the growing inability of children and young people to assess their own performance after an academic evaluation. When asked how the tests went, the most frequent response is a lack of response or a total disconnection from the result. This loss of perception is not mere forgetfulness; it is a deficit in metacognition, strongly correlated with excessive exposure to screens and digital devices.
What is metacognition and how does it connect to the brain?
Metacognition, simply put, is the brain’s ability to think about its own thinking. It’s the neurocognitive process that allows us to monitor, evaluate, and regulate our own cognitive functions. When performing a complex task, such as a written test, we need working memory to access information and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to monitor whether we are answering correctly.
Chronic and early screen use—driven by short video algorithms and social media—alters the developmental dynamics of this brain region. By accustoming the brain to ultra-fast visual stimuli and constant dopamine spikes for immediate reward, the central nervous system enters a state of hyperstimulation. The result is the inhibition of maturation in the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for executive functions and self-reflection.
The Fragmentation of Attention and Working Memory
For a student to be able to identify whether they did well or poorly on an exam, their brain needs to consciously register the experience. However, prolonged exposure to technology generates two critical problems:
1. Linear Attention Deficit: Attention becomes fragmented. The student performs the test in a purely mechanical and reactive way, without the necessary depth to consolidate the experience in long-term memory.
2. Working Memory Exhaustion: Under the effect of healthy boredom deprivation (since any free moment is filled by the mobile phone), the brain loses the ability to retain and process temporary data. Upon finishing the exam, a kind of “cognitive blackout” occurs: the textual clues and the answers given simply disappear from the individual’s immediate record.
An Alert for Neurocognitive Health
Without the ability to monitor one’s own mistakes, the learning process is severely compromised. After all, those who cannot identify where they went wrong will hardly be able to correct their teaching course or develop cognitive resilience.
The inability to answer a simple “how did the test go?” is a clear symptom that the digitized brain is operating in stimulus-response survival mode, atrophying the pathways of self-awareness. It is becoming urgent for research centers, schools, and families to promote digital detoxification and the recovery of analog activities. The healthy cortical development of future generations depends on our ability to disconnect in order to think again.
