How to Acquire metacognitive ability In fact, as long as you know that metacognitive ability exists and its various manifestations, you have inadvertently turned it on. Your metacognitive ability stays online when you can feel the presence of another "ideal self." Of course, it may not be stable at first, and will often "drop the line", which is normal, because metacognitive training is like building a muscle, it needs patience and time, as long as the continuous use, it will be stronger and ...