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Psychological Phenomena

Telescoping Effect

Memory Biases and Effects

The telescoping effect is a phenomenon in cognitive psychology in which people misjudge how long ago an event happened. A recent event is often perceived as more distant in time than it actually was, while a more distant event is often perceived as more recent than it actually was.

Facts
Core Claim
In cognitive psychology, the telescoping effect is a phenomenon in which people underestimate the recency of recent events (backward telescoping), and overestimate the recency of distant events (forward telescoping). 1
First Described Year
1964 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Cognitive Phenomenon 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Telescoping effect
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead paragraph
    In cognitive psychology, the telescoping effect (or telescoping bias) is a phenomenon in which people underestimate the recency of recent events (backward telescoping), and overestimate the recency of distant events (forward telescoping).
  • Origin of the term section
    The original work on telescoping is usually attributed to a 1964 article by Neter and Joseph Waksberg in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    In cognitive psychology, the telescoping effect (or telescoping bias) is a phenomenon in which people underestimate the recency of recent events (backward telescoping), and overestimate the recency of distant events (forward telescoping).
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