You Don't Know What You Do Know: The Curse of Knowledge in Cognition and Teaching
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Haverford College. Department of Psychology
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Bi-College users only
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
The curse of knowledge refers to the common experience of having difficulty setting aside one’s own knowledge when inferring the knowledge of others. Within heuristics and biases research, the curse of knowledge is discussed as a bias arising from the availability, anchoring, and adjustment heuristics, and is conceptually analogous to hindsight bias towards one’s past self. Within theory-of-mind literature, the curse is discussed as a failure to employ mature mentalizing skills, though there lacks consensus on the conceptual relationship between mechanisms driving the curse and those driving theory-of-mind. This paper seeks to bridge the gap between the the heuristics and biases and theory-of-mind approaches by proposing an integrated cognitive mechanism underlying the curse of knowledge. Implications for teachers, strategies for combatting the curse in the classroom, and ideas for future research are discussed.