Principle: Emergence
The Late Narrator
Chapters 19 and 21Two short experiments, interleaved. They take about two minutes. You will be told exactly what happened at the end.
Given a list of words linked to sleep, people often remember 'sleep' itself, though it was never shown, and recognise it almost as often as the words they did see.
Memory reconstructs rather than records: recalled memories become changeable again and can absorb misleading information.
When a choice is secretly swapped, about three people in four do not notice, and many give fluent reasons for a choice they did not make.
What you found
Given a list of words linked to sleep, people often remember 'sleep' itself, though it was never shown, and recognise it almost as often as the words they did see.
Memory reconstructs rather than records: recalled memories become changeable again and can absorb misleading information.
When a choice is secretly swapped, about three people in four do not notice, and many give fluent reasons for a choice they did not make.
Further in the book
The book follows the narrator further, into self-deception as a strategy, in Chapter 21, The Liar in the Mirror.
If you would like to hear when the next laboratory opens, join the reader circle. Join the reader circle