The structure and process of the theory of reconstructive memory Flashcards
(9 cards)
What does Psychologist Frederick Barlett theorise ?
People reconstruct memories based on prior experiences = schema. Does not support the idea of memory being like a computer processing as it recognises that our memory is far from being an accurate reconstruction of our experiences.
How does Bartlett describe schemas ?
an active organisation of past reactions or experiences . This means that things we feel, see and hear freq gives us a mental picture of what they are. So if we see an animal and it has soft fur, purrs, meows and has whiskers, we know from previous experiences that it is a cat.
Bartlett states that we don’t just recall our schemas in chronological order, but that we can be flexible with our schemas and access what is most relevant at that moment in time from our memory. He also states that we can reconstruct our schemas based on new information that we see, hear or feel. Therefore, if we saw a bald cat, we would add the fact that they can have fur or no fur to our ‘cat schema’.
How does Bartlett test his theory ?
He tested his theory by giving participants a story to remember, called ‘The War of the Ghosts’. It was a North American folk tale and some of the words and the
style of the story were unfamiliar to the participants who were British. He found that when participants recalled the story, it was lacking in detail compared to the original and words that were culturally unfamiliar tended to be left out. For example, ‘hunting for seals’ was changed to ‘fishing’ which would have been more consistent with their existing schemas. Bartlett suggested this was because it did not fit with the participants’ existing schemas.
The role of experience on
memory
Our perceptions and memories are shaped by prior experiences. This means that our memory of events may not be accurate as we might imagine. When recalling an event, what we might actually recall is aspects of two different events that our memory has reconstructed as one event. This would explain why two people’s memory of the same event may be different. Imagine that you went on a camping holiday as a child. If you went on another camping holiday the next year, your memories of the first holiday might interfere with memories of the second holiday, so that when you remember them you might confuse the two.
The role of expectation on
memory
Our schemas are designed to help us quickly interpret the huge amount of sensory information that we perceive. These expectations help us make swift judgements about how to act in different situations. Our expectations may not
always be correct but without them we would not be able to respond quickly. For example, if there is a new teacher at school who looks very stern, students might assume that he is very strict and won’t be kind, so they don’t react positively towards him. However, once they get to know him, they realise that their expectations were wrong and he is actually very kind and supportive.
The process of confabulation
Confabulation means making things up. It is not the same as lying, as when people confabulate, they don’t do it with the intent to deceive people nor do they believe that what they are saying is incorrect. Bartlett suggested that people make
up details or use aspects of other memories to fill in the blanks in their schema. This is so that it creates a more consistent reconstruction of the memory.
Distortion and the effect of leading questions
Distortion refers to a memory that differs from the event which took place. Researchers Loftus and Palmer (1974) have demonstrated that memory can be deliberately altered (distorted) by simply changing a verb. They showed participants clips of car crashes then asked them ‘how fast were the cars going when they…’ Participants were given one of five verbs, including ‘contacted’ and ‘smashed’. Results showed that participants who received the verb ‘smashed’ estimated the speed of the cars as significantly higher than
those who had received the verb ‘contacted’.
The implications for this research are very important for the police when dealing with eyewitnesses. It is possible that if they use leading questions when interviewing witnesses, they could influence their testimony.
State 2 criticisms
The theory is reductionist. It focuses on how we create schemas and
reconstruct our memories but fails to explain how these processes actually
happen in the brain.
The theory doesn’t actually explain how memories are
processed. Bartlett describes memory as being an active process but
doesn’t offer an explanation for how this actually happens.
State 3 criticisms
Critics have said that the concept of schema is too vague and
hypothetical to be useful. Schema cannot be observed. Scans can only show brain activity, not exactly what an individual is processing.
The research evidence Bartlett used to support his theory
was not conducted in a systematic way, so many extraneous
variables could have affected the results. Bartlett used his ‘War of the Ghosts’ research as evidence to support his theory. However, he did not use standardised instructions and his research was not tightly controlled, which could have affected how the participants responded. It might be that
the errors and omissions they made were due to demand characteristics and therefore the research does not offer valid support for the theory.
The Reconstructive model of memory is very complicated.
It makes it very hard to determine which aspects of memory will be recalled and which won’t. This makes it very hard to test and therefore it is difficult to predict how people will recall information.
