"Cognitive Illusions and the History of Science"

A Cognitive illusion is the mental analogue of an optical illusion. In an optical illusion we see something as other than it is and, even knowing this to be the case, continue to experience the illusion. In a cognitive illusion our mind presents us with an assumption, thought, or conclusion that appears to be correct even though we may know that it is untrustworthy or false. The source of these illusions is found in the very way that our mind processes information and forms judgments. It turns out that they are nothing other than misapplications, or biased applications, of certain heuristics that are used for making any form of judgment. In other words, the possibility of cognitive illusions is built into the structure of mind