everything i got wrong on MCQs

sunk-cost fallacy

a cognitive bias where we continue a behavior or an endeavor because we have already invested resources (time, money, or effort) into it, even when the current costs outweigh the future benefits.

Essentially, your brain tells you, "I can't quit now, or everything I've already spent will be wasted." The reality, however, is that those resources are gone forever regardless of what you do next.

The sunk-cost fallacy causes us to look backward at "past investments" that cannot be recovered.

EX:

• The Bad Movie: You pay $15 for a movie ticket. Thirty minutes in, you realize the movie is terrible and you aren't enjoying it. Instead of leaving to do something fun, you stay until the end because you "don't want to waste the $15." (The money is spent either way; by staying, you are now also wasting your time).

Cognitive dissonance

a psychological theory developed by Leon Festinger. It describes the mental discomfort (the "dissonance") we feel when we hold two conflicting beliefs, or when our actions don't match our beliefs.

Because humans have a natural drive for consistency, that feeling of discomfort is physically and mentally unpleasant. To get rid of it, we have to change either our behavior or our attitude.

Ex:

The Conflict: You hold a belief ("I am a healthy person") but perform a conflicting action ("I just ate an entire box of donuts").

The Resolution: Since you can't "un-eat" the donuts (the action is done), your brain changes your attitude to justify it. You might tell yourself, "It was a special occasion" or "I’ll just workout twice as hard tomorrow."

Justina believed that she would never become addicted to smoking cigarettes because her parents taught her that it was wrong. Six months ago, she started smoking with her friends on weekends. Now she smokes throughout the week and believes that smoking is no worse than drinking coffee.

The Festinger Study relating to cognitive dissonance

In a classic experiment, participants were asked to do a very boring task (turning wooden pegs for an hour).

• Group A was paid $20 to lie and tell the next person the task was "fun."

• Group B was paid only $1 to tell the same lie.

The Results: Afterward, the people paid $1 actually reported that they enjoyed the task more than the $20 group.

Why?

• The $20 group had an "external justification." They thought, "I lied for the money." No dissonance.

• The $1 group couldn't justify lying for just a dollar. To resolve the discomfort of being a "liar," they convinced themselves that the task actually was fun. They changed their belief to match their action.

Algorithms

Step-by-step strategies (formulas) that help the students arrive at correct solutions when followed.
Think of it like a math formula or a GPS: if you follow the steps exactly, you are 100% certain to get the correct answer.

Spacing effect

a psychological phenomenon where information is better remembered when study sessions are spread out over time rather than crammed into a single session. This is one of the most robust findings in cognitive psychology and is directly relevant to your 10-day study plan.

Availability heuristic

Is based on Vividness/Memory. "I just saw a news report about a robbery, so I think my neighborhood is dangerous."

A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision.

Basically, if you can easily "retrieve" a memory or an example of something happening, your brain assumes it must be common or likely to happen again.

Classic Examples

• Fear of Flying: Many people are more afraid of planes than cars, even though car accidents are statistically much more common. Why? Because a plane crash is a dramatic, vivid event that gets massive news coverage. When you think "airplane," the vivid memory of a crash is "available," so you overestimate the danger.

• Lottery Winners: Lottery commercials always show people holding giant checks. You never see a commercial showing the millions of people who lost. Because the "winner" image is so easy to remember, people overestimate their own chances of winning.

Industrial-organizational psychology

increasing productivity in the workplace.

The scientific study of human behavior in the workplace. It applies psychological principles and research methods to improve the quality of work life and the productivity of an organization.

This focuses on the individual worker and the "logistics" of employment. It is often used by HR departments.

The Hawthorne Effect

One of the most famous studies in I/O history. Researchers found that workers' productivity increased simply because they knew they were being watched by researchers, regardless of whether the physical environment (like lighting) was improved.

• Application: Being observed changes behavior.

Evolutionary psychology

the study of how human behavior and mental processes have been shaped by natural selection.

Essentially, it argues that our brains are "hardwired" with behaviors that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce thousands of years ago. Even if those behaviors aren't always logical in 2026, we still carry them because the people who had them were the ones who lived long enough to pass on their genes.

Shaping

Is an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcement is used to guide an organism's behavior toward a desired "target" behavior through successive approximations.

Instead of waiting for a person or animal to perform a complex task perfectly, you reward them for every small step they take that gets them closer to the final goal.

Change blindness

A perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus goes unnoticed by the observer. This usually happens because our brains cannot process every single detail in a scene at once, so we focus on what we perceive to be the "important" parts