Reconstructive memory Flashcards
What is reconstructive memory?
- Bartlett believed that memory is a reconstruction that is developed from previous knowledge and memories that he calls schemas.
- model demonstrates how recall is affected by previous experiences.
- Bartlett thought that our past and current experiences would affect our memories for events.
- he believed once we’d perceived the event we then begin to process and interpret it and in this stage, our schemas would influence the memory.
What are schemas (schemata)?
- ideas and scripts about the world.
- they provide us with expectations and rules about what to do or expect.
- used to help us recognise or interpret unfamiliar objects or events.
What was Bartlett’s evidence for memory being reconstructive?
Ink blots - he asked participants to describe what they imaged in the pattern they saw. Participants often “rummaged around” their own stored images to find one, often describing plants or animals. He believed the answers participants gave were determined by individual interests, experiences and the mood they were in at the time.
What was the “War of the Ghosts” study?
- used the idea of Chinese whispers. He used this Native American folk story as this story was unfamiliar to the participant and their existing schemas.
- participants read the story twice and asked to recall after 15 mins, with several recalls later (some over a year later).
- Bartlett found that changes in the first recall became more pronounced over time and the story gradually became more concise and shorter.
What were the two major features of reconstructive memory that Bartlett outlined from this study?
Rationalisation - participants tried to work out what made sense and fit things into their own schemas, which sometimes meant missing things out.
Confabulation - bits were added so they made more sense. Confabulation draws on previous experiences in an individual’s life so that what is being “reconstructed” makes more sense to them.
Can Bartlett’s reconstructive model be supported by other theories of memory?
MSM - memories are only retrieved after more than 30 seconds only if they’re in the long-term store and this only happens if the material is attended to.
LTM - Tulving shows episodic memories are stories about ourselves and it’s unlikely that such memories will be perfectly coded, stored and retrieved.
WMM - when material sounds similar, or has a similar meaning, recall is affected differently.
What did Wynn and Logie (1998) want to do?
They wanted to test Bartlett’s findings because they thought that having a story that had little meaning for the participants might’ve affected the findings. They also criticised Bartlett’s study for lacking control as recalls for different participants were not done at regular intervals.
What was the aim of Wynn and Logie’s study?
To look at Bartlett’s findings and his method of repeated recall, but this time using a real-life situation.
What was the procedure of Wynn and Logie’s study?
- 1st year psych students recalling places and events they came across in their first week at uni as their real-life event.
- participants didn’t know they’d be asked about what happened in their first week, which is much more like real-life.
- first description of events and places was taken after 2 weeks, then at 2 months, 4 months and 6 months with fixed intervals.
- of 63 participants included in the final study some recalled just once, some twice and others three times. All had the initial recall of 2 weeks after they started. Therefore, there were three recall conditions:
- 4 recalls (19 participants)
- 3 recalls (16 participants)
- 2 recalls (20 participants)
What were the results of Wynn and Logie’s study?
- the 3 and 4 recall groups showed a significant difference in words recalled over time.
- there were small differences between the three groups in the numbers of words used when looking at the first description (after 2 weeks) and the first recall session.
- there didn’t seem to be any differences in the type of words that were used in the different recall conditions.
- over a period of 6 months, there was little reduction in the amount of information that there is to be recalled.
What were the conclusions of Wynn and Logie’s study?
- differences found in this study compared to Bartlett’s were put down to the fact that although the students were new to the events and locations in their first week at uni, they weren’t new to the schemas and experiences. Whereas, Bartlett’s participants were new to the schemas in the “War of the Ghosts” story.
- they concluded that in real-life there is less reproduction in memory than Bartlett previously proposed and that people’s memories for “distinctive” events are resistant to change over time, no matter how many times the memory is recalled.
What are the strengths of Bartlett’s theory?
- good amount of evidence (WOTG and Lofts eyewitness testimony).
- can be tested by experimental methods as the IV can be measured, an IV and DV can be established whilst other variables can be controlled and so reliability can be achieved.
- theory can be useful in real-life e.g. when looking at how reliable eyewitness memory is.
What are the weaknesses of Bartlett’s theory?
- WOTG involves an unusual story that doesn’t make sense to participants so participants might alter the story so it makes sense because they are being asked to retell it. This may cause demand characteristics as the participant tries to guess what is intended, so results may not be reliable.
- theory doesn’t actually explain how memory is reconstructive - descriptive rather than explanatory.
- evidence comes from artificial tasks and experiments that aren’t ecologically valid. The WOTG story has little relevance to everyday memory.
(however, Steyvers and Hemmer, 2012 argue that hearing stories and viewing scenes is representative of real-life).
