Metacognition is one’s awareness and understanding of their own thought processes. It involves using knowledge for the task, knowledge of ways to learn, and innate knowledge of themselves to plan their learning, monitor their progress towards a goal, and evaluate the outcome.
Metacognitive regulation is the ability to control and direct one’s thinking processes. This could involve planning, monitoring and evaluating true comprehension during a task. When you realize you’re not understanding some text and decide to slow down and re-read something, that’s an example of metacognitive regulation.