**1. Introduction**

The questions about the nature of how we know other people's minds (mindreading, "theory of mind" [1]) and how we know our own mind (metacognition [2, 3]) are intensely debated in a variety of research fields such as cognitive sciences, psychology, or psychiatry [4, 5]. The term "metacognition" describes cognitive processes that are involved in "thinking about own thinking" by which people can reflect upon (monitor) their own internal mental states and use their knowledge to evaluate and regulate (control) their own mental states [6, 7]. On the other hand, the notion of mindreading is related to our own cognitive processes that can be applied to other people ("thinking about the thinking of others") in terms of recognizing others' intentions, mental states, emotions, as well as predicting possible behavior of other people [1, 4, 8]. In fact, Bateman and Fonagy [9] point out that both mental capacities (metacognition and mindreading) can be a form of mentalization engaging cognitive processes that are aimed at implicit and explicit interpretation of our own actions and actions of other people as meaningful. In fact, both components influence one another and involve complex and critical operations in human social life [8].

disorders identify abnormal patterns of recognition and attribution of mental states either to themselves or others in patients suffering from schizophrenia [20, 21], social phobia [10], as well as patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorders (BDP) [22, 23]. It is important to emphasize that new approaches to conceptualization of the interaction between metacognition and mindreading become important not only for understanding abnormal social cognition but also for finding effective treatments of mental disorders and offering appropriate psychological care to patients. Our paper aims to demonstrate that combination of an interactionist approach on metacognition and mindreading [6] with a theory of consciousness mechanisms [24, 25] is a convenient cognitive perspective that takes into consideration the interaction between both mental capacities and conscious access to information in ensuring

Consciousness and Social Cognition from an Interactionist Perspective: A New Approach…

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Before going ahead with our theoretical discussion, it is first instructive to start with discussing a case from clinical intervention that shows cognitive complexity and real challenges behind the relation between social cognition and consciousness. Recently, there has been a substantial progress in the field of cognitive-behavioral interventions for treatment of psychiatric disorders (for instance, see [26]). Empirical studies on new therapeutic approaches based on metacognitive training provide solid evidence that corrective experiences are efficient in handling cognitive biases in psychiatric populations [27]. Positive clinical results are achieved through a variety of metacognitive technique exercises including the "theory of mind" skills (https:// clinical-neuropsychology.de/metacognitive\_training/). Research studies clearly show that psychiatric patients who underwent intervention of metacognitive training for psychosis can substantially reduce their cognitive biases [26]. For instance, patients undergoing a therapeutic intervention based on the "theory of mind" module for psychosis by engaging conscious evaluation may diminish overconfidence in errors, frequency of jumping to conclusions, etc. Let us imagine an omnipotent patient that attempts to identify the actor as a leader who speaks to the crowd and may be overconfident in his/her wrong response. The example shown in **Figure 1** can help us to capture the phenomenology of social cognition and conscious evaluation. It is most likely that abnormal information processing in this patient would lead to biased responses (distortion in social cognition) and overconfidence (abnormal metacognition) in his/her attempts to recognize social information. We can see that in these circumstances the patient can fail to construct accurate knowledge. Although after therapeutic intervention and engaging mechanisms of conscious access to his/her interpretation, it comes to a symptom's reduction, and the patient gains accurate knowledge about their surrounding others. This particular situation illustrates how faulty interpretation can be potentially corrected by conscious evaluation. How then the patient eventually gains accurate knowledge and forms the proper interpretation? Here, we will attempt to answer these research questions from a cognitive perspective by demonstrating that conscious access is an important mechanism for correcting our theories and judgments intended to

effective social behavior.

**2. Metacognitive therapy and role of consciousness**

interpret and predict behavior of other people.

Crucially, clinical research interest focuses also on attempts to explain various mental disorders in relation to deficits in mindreading [10], dysfunctional metacognition, [11] as well as an abnormal relationship between both cognitive facilities [11]. Typically, clinical researchers define mindreading deficits as limitations or complete loss of capacity to recognize and attribute mental states in order to understand other people, including their intentions, beliefs, emotions, and possible behaviors [4, 11]. For instance, such persistent mindreading deficits are commonly observed in a group of patients with schizophrenia [11]. In turn, impairments in metacognition are thought to be involved in formation of abnormal recognition and understanding one's own mental states and deficits in proper control and monitoring of one's own internal states [12]. Apparently, deficits in metacognition are demonstrable in a variety of mental disorders. Some clinical studies demonstrate influence of dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs on the development of and formation of psychotic symptoms, including hallucinations and symptoms of anxiety accompanying mental disorders [13]. For instance, a core positive symptom of schizophrenia, which is a lack of insight, clearly represents a failure of metacognition. Over the last decade, the empirical research emphasizes the role of dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs (declarative knowledge) or metacognitive thought control strategies (procedural knowledge) as predictive to development of psychosis in normal and clinical populations [14–16] and maintenance of neurotic symptoms [17]. A vast body of research gives also indication that patients with psychosis have also dysfunctional meta-beliefs. For instance, in a nonclinical sample, García-Montes and colleagues [18] based on Metacognitions Questionnaire construct (MCQ construct; [19]) in their correlation study showed that both metacognitive factors such as thought control strategies about worry as well as loss of confidence were indicative to hallucination proneness when trait anxiety was controlled.

Nonetheless, the present article considers a more complex cognitive architecture of social cognition that may possibly underline the dysfunctional interaction between mindreading and metacognitive capacities. For example, recent clinical studies on various causes of mental disorders identify abnormal patterns of recognition and attribution of mental states either to themselves or others in patients suffering from schizophrenia [20, 21], social phobia [10], as well as patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorders (BDP) [22, 23]. It is important to emphasize that new approaches to conceptualization of the interaction between metacognition and mindreading become important not only for understanding abnormal social cognition but also for finding effective treatments of mental disorders and offering appropriate psychological care to patients. Our paper aims to demonstrate that combination of an interactionist approach on metacognition and mindreading [6] with a theory of consciousness mechanisms [24, 25] is a convenient cognitive perspective that takes into consideration the interaction between both mental capacities and conscious access to information in ensuring effective social behavior.
