Concept · Cognitive Bias: Memory biases and distortions
Telescoping effect
Origin: Neter & Waksberg, 1964
Biological Parallel
Animals compress time for recent salient events—a bear remembering a honey tree bloom may recall it as more recent than actual because vivid memories feel temporally closer. This is temporal compression based on salience: important patterns get marked 'relevant now' regardless of actual timing. The telescoping effect reveals temporal tagging serves prediction, not chronology: recent-feeling memories signal 'this pattern still applies' more than dating the event.