Reconstructive memory

Question 1

AO1

Answer 1

• Memories are an active reconstruction
• Schema- a mental representation of an object/person
• Confabulation- schemas have their gaps filled in when they are recalled
• Omission- things that aren’t relevant to your schemas are forgotten
• Accommodation- change info to fit your schema
• Rationalistaion - adding in details to fit your scheme

Question 2

Cognitive interviews

Answer 2

A police interview designed to ensure a witness to a crime doesn’t actively reconstruct their memory so could lead to errors

Question 3

Strengths AO3

Answer 3

S- Loftus and palmer; found when students were given the word ‘bumped’ they estimated the speed of car and no broken glass compared to students given the word ‘smashed’ who guessed higher speed and broken glass- provides evidence in changing words leads to a change in a persons memory
OTOH- task of watching a car crash lacks mundane realism
U- Helps our understanding of eye witness memories for crime and why it cannot be used anymore- credible explanation of real life events.

Question 4

Weaknesses AO3

Answer 4

C- Bewer and Tyrens; asked p’s to recall items from an office like room they recalled office like consistent items consistently rather than inconsistent items- confabulation they should have remembered the inconsistent items were not there
OTOH- lacks mundane realism and ecological validity
O- msm considers existence of STM,LTM ; reconstructive doesn’t consider storage or encoding of memory- less credible explanation of memory.
T- Schemas recall studies like Bartletts lack ecological validity making them less applicable to real life situations
- everyones schemas are different- cannot be measured