Reconstructive Memory

Question 1

Reconstructive memory study name and scientist

Answer 1

War of the ghosts by Bartlett

Question 2

Aim

Answer 2

to investigate whether people’s memory for a story is affected by previous knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory is reconstructive

Question 3

What war of the ghosts was

Answer 3

Unfamiliar Native American folks tale

Question 4

What they found

Answer 4

Story changed (became shorter and left out unfamiliar details)
Made story more conventional, coherent and meaningful to participants

Question 5

Schema

Answer 5

Mental package of information

Question 6

How is encoding and rehearsal affected by schemas?

Answer 6

Encoding = new knowledge that conflicts with existing schema might not be encoded in first place because it doesn’t fit with what you expect

Question 7

Strength

Answer 7

Most psychologists investigating memory use artificial materials (numbers e.g.)
Social origins of memory are not artificial (story, passing it along)
Ecological validity

Question 8

Weakness

Answer 8

• People may not always actively reconstruct memories
  If you can reconstruct memories, they can be unaffected by schemas
• Retrieval process is based on drawing information from schemas to comprehend situation

Question 9

CA to strength

Answer 9

Lacked objectivity
did not follow standardised procedures

Question 10

What is reconstructive memory the theory of

Answer 10

Memories are reconstructed each time they are recalled

Question 11

Describe reconstructive memory

Answer 11

The schema we possess alters the content of our memories which we recall to be consistent with our belief/ previous experiences
Our existing schemas affects our memory in line wiht our beliefs or previous experience
We use our schemas to fill in the gaps