This chapter reviews psychological theories and research about how wisdom develops. Why do some people become highly wise over time while others do not seem to gain any insights from their experiences? First, a broad developmental model of wisdom as expertise is introduced, which distinguishes between person characteristics, factors that foster the development of expertise in general, and experiential contexts that are conducive to wisdom. Then, a more specific model is described that describes five resources that help people gain wise insights from life challenges. Finally, empirical evidence on the relationship between wisdom and age is reviewed.

Metacognition is thinking about the contents and processes of one’s own cognition. Research shows that metacognition plays important roles in most cognitive tasks, from everyday behaviors to problem-solving to expert performance. This chapter focuses on metacognition’s centrality in learning and in self-regulated learning. When learning, people monitor what they know and whether it is aligned with their intended learning outcome. A learner’s ability to monitor effectively is known as calibration. Learners then control their next actions based on their monitoring, and finally they self-regulate the process of monitoring and controlling their learning by shaping and adapting cognition or behavior by reaching forward by planning for future tasks. Research shows that people learn better when they have strong metacognitive abilities and when they can self-regulate their learning effectively.

The ongoing scientific and technological developments that impact professional performance require professionals to keep their competencies up-to-date which calls for complex learning. Complex learning involves integrating knowledge, skills, and attitudes; coordinating different constituent skills; and often transferring what is learned in school or training settings to daily life and work settings. It requires memory processes and cognitive learning processes aimed at schema construction and schema automation. In line with the 4C/ID model, we claim that four components are necessary to realize complex learning: (1) learning tasks, (2) supportive information, (3) procedural information, and (4) part-task practice.

Chapter 6 extends the metaphor of a knowledge economy by considering the category of “common knowledge,” understood in the analogy to common or public property. The chapter then considers this idea in relation to Wittgenstein’s notion of hinge commitments, and in particular Wittgenstein’s observation that some of our most deeply held commitments are neither “a result of investigation” (and so, not from generation) nor something that is typically asserted (and so, not from transmission). The chapter also looks at the notion of procedural knowledge in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, and argues that many of the distinctive features that Wittgenstein attributes to hinge commitments are also characteristic features of procedural knowledge. In particular, procedural knowledge is tacit in both theoretical and practical reasoning, and in that sense drives perception, inference and action. This suggests a virtue-theoretic account of common knowledge, in terms of tacit knowledge that is constitutive of cognitive virtue. In this way, it is possible to preserve a unified account of generated knowledge, transmitted knowledge, and common knowledge.

In this chapter we address the question of whether or not language acquisition is largely implicit in nature. After reviewing key constructs (e.g., explicit and implicit knowledge, explicit and implicit processing/learning, intentional and unintentional learning), we discuss the major positions currently under scrutiny in the field: (1) explicit learning is necessary; (2) explicit learning is beneficial; (3) explicit learning does little to nothing (i.e., acquisition is largely if not exclusively implicit in nature). A key issue in this chapter is how one defines “language” and how one construes “input processing.” We will review how definitions of these constructs color the researcher’s perspective on the issues.