Final answer:
Talia's underestimation of the time needed to complete her paper exemplifies the 'planning fallacy,' a cognitive bias that causes individuals to underestimate the time required for tasks, which can lead to mismanagement of time and missed deadlines.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the context of self-knowledge, the scenario where Talia, a college student, estimates that a paper will take one day to write but it ends up taking three exemplifies the concept of the planning fallacy. The planning fallacy is a cognitive bias where people underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future actions and overestimate the benefits of those same actions. This often results in time mismanagement and missed deadlines, as we see with Talia who sets aside Sunday to complete her paper, but it takes an additional two days to finish it.
The planning fallacy affects individuals, even when they are aware of past experiences of taking longer than planned. Despite Talia's previous experiences with paper writing, she fell victim to this cognitive bias by optimistically assuming the paper could be completed in a shorter timeframe than was realistic. This type of bias is an important aspect of psychology as it influences how people plan and execute tasks, and understanding it can help in developing more realistic timelines and expectations.