why we make mistakes

More thoughts taken from "Why We Make Mistakes" by Joseph T. Hallinan (since I have NO thoughts of my own):

We wear rose-colored glasses. As in we remember our grades being higher than they actually were, gamblers remember their wins more than their losses, and we think photos that have been digitally altered to make us more attractive are the real photos.

Hindsight is not twenty-twenty. We have hindsight bias. Knowing how the event turned out alters our recollection of it. People tend to exaggerate what they would have known at the time as well as actually misremember what they knew.

Research on voters shows that people generally vote for the candidate based on split-second inferences from looking at their faces/photos. The info they gather during the election (such as positions on issues) dilutes the effect but does not eliminate it.

Multitasking is one of the great myths of the modern age. We think we are focusing on several activities at once when really our attention is shifting back and forth between the tasks. The brain actually slows down when it has to juggle tasks. We're more apt to forget or to make mistakes.

--scrappinsoccermama now knows why she often burns the last batch of cookies (because she has moved on to new tasks)