The following text is about cognitive psychology.
The "curse of knowledge" describes experts' difficulty imagining what it's like not to know something they know. Once you know a solution, you cannot remember how puzzling the problem once seemed. This bias affects teaching: instructors may accidentally skip steps that seem obvious to them but crucial to novices. It affects communication: specialists may use jargon without realizing outsiders don't understand. Counteracting the curse requires conscious effort to adopt the perspective of the uninformed—difficult precisely because the knowledge feels so natural.
Why is the curse of knowledge difficult to overcome?
Experts lack any relevant knowledge
The knowledge feels so natural that imagining its absence is difficult
Students actively resist learning
Teaching methods are always standardized
Correct Answer: B
Choice B is the correct answer. The text states overcoming the curse "requires conscious effort to adopt the perspective of the uninformed—difficult precisely because the knowledge feels so natural."
- Evidence: Knowledge feels natural; remembering ignorance is hard.
- Reasoning: Naturalness makes alternative perspectives difficult to imagine.
- Conclusion: Feeling of naturalness creates the difficulty.
Choice A is incorrect because experts have too much, not too little, knowledge. Choice C is incorrect because the problem is with teachers, not students. Choice D is incorrect because standardization isn't discussed.