Composite Dynamic Process of Cognition: A Unified Model of Capability Formation, the Boundary of Metacognition, and the Internalization of a Mode of Thinking

Abstract

Human cognition operates within continuously changing dynamic processes, yet cognitive research often examines problem solving, metacognition, expertise, transfer, and feedback through separate explanatory frameworks. This study proposes a unified model in which cognition itself is analyzed as a Composite Dynamic Process. The model organizes cognition through four complete component cognitive processes: Dynamic Process Positioning (C1), Relational Analysis (C2), Alternative Development (C3), and Resource Allocation (C4). These processes are linked by transfer relations and a feedback reception mechanism that allows discrepancy tracing, cognitive adjustment, and regeneration. On this basis, the study distinguishes cognition of the object’s dynamic process (RD) from cognition of the cognitive process participating in that cognition (RM), providing a structural boundary for metacognition. It further derives a model of cognitive capability formation in which capabilities develop through participation in the regeneration of corresponding cognitive processes, rather than from repeated execution alone. Dynamic Thinking is then defined as the internalization of this composite mode of cognitive organization as a mode of thinking. The framework generates testable predictions concerning capability transfer, routine and adaptive expertise, functional misplacement, and the development of composite cognitive capabilities. Rather than treating these phenomena as independent, the model proposes that they can be examined through a common structure of dynamic processes, transfer, functional roles, feedback, and regeneration.