Reconstructive Memory Flashcards
What is reconstructive memory?
Reconstructive memory explains that we fill in the gaps in our memory using our schemas. These schemas are packages of information consistent with our beliefs and previous experiences, for example, a schema of a car crash may involve ‘broken glass’, ‘blood’ and ‘chaos’, causing you to recall those things even though they may not have been present.
What is confabulation?
This is when details are added or changed to align with someone’s culture and schemas. For example, in the ‘War of Ghosts’ study, the story became more consistent with the participants’ own cultural expectations as ‘canoe’ was changed to ‘boat’ and ‘hunting seals’ was changed to ‘fishing’.
What is rationalisation?
This is when parts are changed as they are deemed irrational, could be order of events, reason behind behaviour or character motivations.
What is levelling?
This is when memories are shortened as you omit information you deem unimportant. For example, if someone witnesses a person stealing jewellery and a packet of tissues, the person wouldn’t report the packet of tissues being stolen as they didn’t deem it to be important.
What is a strength of this theory?
It is supported by empirical research evidence. For example, Bartlett found in his ‘War of Ghosts’ study participants altered the story upon each recall, omitting, confabulating and rationalising the information, e.g. British participants changed canoe to boat, the story length reduced to 180 words as participants removed names and details which didn’t make sense/unfamiliar to them. This illustrates how we have subjective memory construction as the theory states, rather than an accurate objective recall of events which other models of memory suggest.
What is a weakness of this theory?
Further research has showed that Bartlett may be incorrect in suggesting that memory is reconstructed and therefore distorted upon each recall.
Wynn and Logie (1998) conducted a replication of Bartlett’s ‘War of the Ghosts’ but used a real-life situation. They asked first year psychology students to recall events from their first week at university and found that there was only a small reduction in the amount of information recalled even after 6 months.
Therefore, real-life situations which are more familiar may be less susceptible to the reconstruction Bartlett suggested (e.g. schema influence/confabulation/levelling, etc) and they are in fact more like a tape recorder.
