Availability bias prevents us from setting our prior beliefs appropriately, whereas confirmation bias stops us from updating them for new information. - David Franklin

Exams also give us a concrete example of Dan’s attempts to promote understanding over memorization. He encourages students to bring with them a ‘cheat sheet’, which can include anything they want. He does not want students being tested on whether they can remember the formula for the standard error of a distribution, and does not believe that it will be helpful for them to do so. Allowing cheat sheets means that students can bring more than just formulas with them: if they were struggling with a topic, they could bring all sorts of pre-cooked explanations to help them with the exam questions. In turn, this acts as an extra incentive to Dan to set questions that rely on a deeper understanding.

But everyone who guessed in this way went low, rather than high. It suggests that there is some form of systemic bias in play.

Einstein is supposed to have remarked that “education is what remains when one has forgotten everything they learned at school”.