Brewer and Treyens (1981) Flashcards
Reconstructive Memory
Theory that when memories are accessed, they are not retrieved as a
single whole memory, but rather as a collection of independent memories put together.
Episodic Memory
the memory of specific events that have occurred at a given time and place
Aim
Investigate the role of schema in encoding and retrieval of episodic memory
Procedure
- Participants seated in a room made to look like an office- room included objects that were
typical of offices (paper, coffee pot, electronics). There were also some items not typical
of an office (skull). There were items that were omitted (books). - Participants were told to wait in the office and did not know the experiment started. All
chairs in the office had objects on them except for one. Researcher left room - Participants called to another room and were asked what they remembered from the
office - 3 Conditions: Recall (asked to write down description of objects and their location as
well as a verbal recognition test where they were given a booklet with list of objects),
drawing condition (given an outline of room and asked to draw the objects as they could
remember) and verbal recognition (read a list of objects and asked whether they were in
room or not)
Results
Participants asked to write or draw remembered items that were congruent with their
schema of an office- incongruent items were often not recalled
- When asked to select items from a list, participants were more likely to identify
incongruent items and higher rate at identifying schema congruent items
- Both drawing and recall changed nature of objects to fit schema
Evaluation
Produced both quantitative and qualitative data to develop deeper understanding of the
role of schema
- No way to verify schema prior to the experiment, but did utilize a questionnaire to
develop schema consistent objects
- Ethical concern of deception in order to avoid demand characteristics
