Socioeconomic status impacts metacognition of working memory and emotion recognition

Neuroscience. 2026 Jul 6:S0306-4522(26)00436-7. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2026.07.006. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Socioeconomic status (SES) affects a wide range of cognitive functions. Still, its influence on metacognition, a second-order, integrative, and regulatory cognitive process, remains unknown. We compared low and high SES adults' performance in metacognition, a function critical for adaptation through the monitoring of mental and cognitive content to adjust behavior. In Study I, participants performed a working memory task and rated the task difficulty; based on the difference between the two measures, we calculated a metacognitive index (MI). In Study II, we used a facial emotion recognition task. After each trial, participants were asked to evaluate their confidence in their task's performance, from which we calculated an MI. Study I shows that low-SES individuals have lower metacognitive performance than their high-SES counterparts in working memory. Study II indicates that low SES individuals showed poorer metacognitive performance in negative emotions than high SES individuals, which was maintained after covarying for executive functions. Overall, results suggest that low-SES adults exhibit poorer metacognition of working memory and emotion recognition than high-SES adults, representing a specific rather than a domain-general deficit in executive functions. These findings contribute to the characterization of SES-related differences in cognition and are relevant for global and disparity-inclusive approaches.

PMID:42409212 | DOI:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2026.07.006