2.1.4 reconstructive memory Flashcards
What is reconstructive memory
fragments of stored information are reassembled during recall. The gaps are filled in by our expectations and beliefs so that we can produce a story
Who thought of reconstructive memory
bartlett 1932
he insisted on representing memory in real context and believed memory should be studied in context with other cognitive processes like perception.
What is a schema
bartlett’s main idea is that our memory is grouped into categories called schemas. A schema is a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. We are born with some schemas but they develop in complexity with experience of the world. It is how we organise memory and when we recall an event our schemas tell us what is supposed to happen. Sometimes the scheme and my filling gaps in our memory confabulation which makes the memory in accurate
Give supporting evidence of reconstructive memory
allport and postman 1947: they showed participants a drawing of an argument on a subway train. They were asked to describe it to another participant through serial reproduction like Chinese whispers. The black character was better dressed and more respectable than the white character but after serial reproduction white participants tended to reverse their appearances. Some even describe the black characters holding a knife
bransford and johnson 1972: showed participants the passage about doing laundry. A third of participants knew it and it made sense to them and a third did not know it. He concluded that we do make sense of information using prior knowledge called schemas
bartlett 1932: war of the ghost story which was culturally unfamiliar to participants which made it easier to examine transformations in the story. He found participants change the story and three patterns of distortion. Confabulation = became more consistent with participants own cultural expectations details unconsciously changed and new information was added to fill in a memory so it made sense.. levelling : The story became shorter with each retelling 330 words to 190. rationalisation : The participants tended to change the order of the story in order to make sense of it using terms more familiar to them
but this study has low validity as the story is written in an unusual way. Therefore the deliberately ambiguous language may have confuse participants are limits the credibility of memory recall in real life however the fact that the participants did not know the story actually increases the reliability.
loftus and palmer 1974: after watching the seven films of traffic accidents the participants were asked to describe what had happened as if they were I witnesses. They were then asked specific questions including the question about how fast were the cars going when they smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted each other. He found that the participants who asked the smashed question thought the car was will go in faster than those who asked the hit question. The results show that the verb conveyed an impression of the speed the car was travelling and this alter the participants perceptions.
This clearly shows that your schema can distort and I win is testimony is an accurate and that memories can be distorted by scheme is confabulating and it lacks mundane realism and ecological validity
evaluate reconstructive memory
strengths
loftus carried out a range of lab experiments into reconstructive memory all of which had tight experimental controls, standardise procedures, and collected quantitive data making them quite objective and reliable and has quite a high ecological validity
reconstructive memory has links to tulving theories about semantic memory. If reconstructive memory is true this makes his ideas more plausible. Moreover semantic memory might have much more influence over episodic memory than tulving imagined because schemas dictate how we reconstruct our memories
it helps us understand some things about patients with memory loss. Though they may be confused by their amnesia, they might still remember important schemas and this could be used to, focus them. For example Clive wearing still loved his wife and loves music but she could still play.
It proves eye witness testimonies are not reliable
evaluate reconstructive memory
Weaknesses
The early study by Bartlett was not at all scientific. He did not follow standardise procedures, getting his students to reproduce the story as and when. He had no scoring system for measuring changes in Rico other than counting the number of words and this makes his research conclusions subjective
Bartlett accused of over emphasising the inaccuracy of memory and using unfamiliar material to support his idea
The concept of a schema and its action is still a little vague
it doesn’t explain how memory is reconstructed. The other cognitive theories of memory describe the processes at work in rehearsing, retrieving and recalling. These processes have been linked to specific parts of the brain thanks to brain scanning and research on patients with lesions in specific parts of the brain. Reconstructive memory is much vague about how schemas work and where they are located
