Metacognitive feelings as mental affordances

Abstract

Abstract: This paper explores the role of metacognitive feelings as mental affordances. Drawing on McClelland’s Mental Affordance Hypothesis (MAH), we argue that metacognitive feelings are mental affordances because they motivate agents from within and guide their mental behavior. More specifically, we claim that metacognitive feelings satisfy McClelland’s sensitivity and potentiation requirements: they make agents sensitive to their own cognitive states and potentiate specific mental actions. After presenting and assessing the MAH, we examine the motivational features of metacognitive feelings, focusing especially on valence and intensity. We then analyze metacognitive feelings related to remembering, reasoning, and attention. Finally, we argue that the MAH should be expanded to incorporate these feelings, since they function as internal affective signals that potentiate and modulate mental actions in ways consistent with the hypothesis.