Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman Ep70 Re Broadcast "Why do our memories drift? Part 1: The War of the Ghosts"
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Dec 22, 2025 Explore how medieval artwork misrepresented lions, revealing insights about memory construction. David Eagleman discusses the 'telephone game' analogy, illustrating how memories distort over time. Discover the impact of cultural schemas on narrative recall and the role of interference from new memories in memory fading. Hear about studies on eyewitness suggestibility and the surprising reliability of flashbulb memories like those from 9/11. The conversation dives into how these memory drifts affect our identities and personal narratives.
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Repeated Retellings Alter Details
- Eagleman reads several participants' reproductions showing how the tale warped over repeated retellings and months.
- One subject's 30-month reproduction condensed the story into a short, conventional fight-and-death narrative.
War Of The Ghosts Experiment
- David Eagleman recounts Bartlett's use of the Native American folktale "The War of the Ghosts" to study memory drift.
- Participants retold the story repeatedly and the tale progressively shortened and changed over time.
Memory Shapes Stories To Fit Schemas
- Bartlett found distortions followed people's internal schemas, making stories more coherent to the reteller.
- Memory changes steer details toward familiarity and cultural expectations rather than random noise.