People are typically overly optimistic when evaluating the quality of their performance on social and intellectual tasks. In particular, poor performers grossly overestimate their performances because their incompetence deprives them of the skills needed to recognize their deficits. Five studies demonstrated that poor performers lack insight into their shortcomings even in real world settings and when given incentives to be accurate. An additional meta-analysis showed that it was lack of insight into their own errors (and not mistaken assessments of their peers) that led to overly optimistic estimates among poor performers. Along the way, these studies ruled out recent alternative accounts that have been proposed to explain why poor performers hold such positive impressions of their performance.

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A study was conducted to determine whether the difference in heat resistance of the ascospores produced by two strains of the mold Byssochbmys fuhn was related to their chemical composition. Cleaned spore preparations were analyzed for proteins, amino acids, lipids and minerals. The most significant difference was a greater quantity of fatty acids longer than C,, in the more heat resistant spores. Some of the longer chained fatty acids recovered from both strains had not previously been detected in fungal spores and it was concluded that they may be a factor in explaining the high heat resistance of Byssochlamys ascospores.

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