This Rewriting Is Called The Overshadowing Effect

And experiments show that it not only affects our memories for faces, but also for accidents, colors, images, household objects, and even the tastes of different wines.

This feature of language has the advantage of economy—it’s easier to remember a simplified version of an experience. Most of the time, we aren’t trying to capture or communicate very fine details in our words. A simplified rendition of reality is easier to convey, just as it’s easier to reproduce an image from someone’s line drawing than from a photograph.