Intergenerational and sex differences in metacognitive effectiveness during the Covid-19 pandemic

The pandemic and its control measures affected the mental health of the general population regardless of confirmed viral exposure at an unprecedented scale. Studies have often reported a severe increase in mental illnesses and behavioural disorders, especially in pathologies related to metacognitive performance, attributed to organic and functional deterioration.This repeated cross-sectional study investigated generational and sex differences in basic cognition, metacognitive effectiveness and self-assessment by comparing samples before the outbreak, immediately after the first lockdown and at the end of the COVID-19 crisis.We recruited a sample of adult, mentally healthy working-age subjects (n = 1385; age = 18–65) to perform computerized short-term memory tests designed to investigate the associations among basic cognition, metacognitive effectiveness (metamemory and decisional awareness), and self-assessment.Cognitive and metacognitive abilities—metamemory and decisional awareness—and self-assessment are associated with each other and, after the initial turbulent deviations of the first lockdown, returned close to default, but metamemory constantly decreased regardless of age and sex during the examined period.The decline in metacognitive effectiveness that impacted males and females of most generations similarly, but to different extents, provides an explanation for the rise of mental disorders and consequent psychopathologies during the crisis.