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Scientific taxonomy

Memory

Memory Biases

How our memory can be systematically distorted

9 min read

Von Restorff Effect

The Von Restorff effect is the tendency to remember items that stand out from their surroundings more than items that blend in.

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9 min read

Positivity Effect

The positivity effect is the tendency, especially in older adults, to remember and focus more on positive than negative information.

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9 min read

Google Effect

The Google effect is the tendency to forget information that we know can be easily looked up online, while remembering how to access it.

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2 min read

Nostalgia Bias

Nostalgia bias is the tendency to view the past, especially one's own past, with longing and affection, often idealizing it while ignoring negative aspects.

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2 min read

Rosy Retrospection

Rosy retrospection is the psychological phenomenon of people sometimes judging the past disproportionately more positively than they judge the present.

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2 min read

Telescoping Effect

The telescoping effect is a temporal displacement of an event whereby people perceive recent events as being more remote than they are and distant events as being more recent than they are.

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5 min read

Consistency Bias

Remembering our past beliefs as more similar to current ones.

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5 min read

Suggestibility

Incorporating misleading information into memory.

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12 min read

False Memory

False memory refers to the phenomenon of confidently recalling events that did not happen or remembering them differently from how they occurred.

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11 min read

Cryptomnesia

Cryptomnesia is the phenomenon of mistakenly believing that a remembered idea is original, forgetting that it came from someone else.

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11 min read

Source Confusion

Source confusion is the tendency to remember information while misattributing where it came from, blending memories of different sources or contexts.

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12 min read

Misinformation Effect

The misinformation effect occurs when a person’s memory of an event is altered by post-event information, such as leading questions or misleading details.

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12 min read

Inattentional Blindness

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a visible but unexpected object or event because attention is focused elsewhere.

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12 min read

Change Blindness

Change blindness is the failure to notice large changes in a visual scene when they occur during a brief disruption or distraction.

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12 min read

Attentional Bias

Attentional bias is the tendency for our attention to be drawn more strongly to certain types of stimuli—such as threats, rewards, or concerns—shaping what we notice, think about, and remember.

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11 min read

Selective Perception

Selective perception is the tendency to notice, interpret, and remember information that fits our expectations or goals while overlooking or downplaying conflicting information.

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10 min read

Choice-Supportive Bias

Choice-supportive bias is the tendency to remember our past choices as better than they were and to exaggerate the positives of chosen options while downplaying their negatives.

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11 min read

Hindsight Bias

Hindsight bias is the tendency to see past events as having been more predictable than they actually were, believing "I knew it all along" after the outcome is known.

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