Reconstructive memory

Question 1

Schema

Answer 1

Organised mental
representation created from past
experiences

Question 1

Memory as a constructive process

Answer 1

At encoding: interpret
perceptual input on the basis
of past experience, and store
the interpretation
*At retrieval: reconstruct the
memory according to our
schemas

Question 2

Difficulties in replicating Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study

Answer 2

Ecological validity - people don’t repeat stories word for word in real life, may embellish, paraphrase, edit
Lack of standardised procedures
Instructions given were vague
Didn’t test at regular intervals

Question 3

Bransford & Johnson 1972

Answer 3

Manipulated whether or not people knew that topic was washing clothes - First group told “You are going to hear a passage about washing clothes”, second group told after, third group not told at all
Then read passage - would be somewhat unclear if you don’t know the topic
Comprehensibility rating, then recall
When people understood more, they recalled more
Were able to access schema of washing clothes

Question 4

Brewer and Treyens 1981

Answer 4

Waited in graduate student’s office for 35 seconds
Taken to another room
Asked to recall everything in the first room
P’s falsely recalled schema-consistent items (e.g., books) which were not present - potentially believed it was likely
P’s correctly recalled schema-inconsistent item, such as a skull, potentially because they stood out

Question 5

Effect of schemas on eyewitness accuracy

Answer 5

Can use crime schema to attempt to understand and process the event
Afterwards, during the interview process, may use this schema to help them retrieve details

Question 6

The role of stimulus ambiguity, Tuckey & Brewer, 2003

Answer 6

P’s saw a video of a bank robbery and were later interviewed
Stimulus ambiguity manipulation - robber pointing a bag which might have had a gun in it, vs bag hanging limp by his side
P’s made more schema-consistent errors for ambiguous vs unambiguous details

Question 7

Loftus and Palmer, 1974

Answer 7

Effect of leading questions
Experiment 1 - “about how fast were the cars going when they hit smashed / collided / bumped / contacted each other”
Verb made a difference in estimated mph - difference of 9mph between “smashed” and “contacted” condition
Some p’s may have been unsure, and verb biased them towards a higher estimate
Or memory representation may have been changed
Experiment 2: “smashed”, “hit” or control with no question about speed.
1 week later asked “did you see a broken headlight?”
P’s who heard smashed were more than 2x more likely to falsely remember broken glass