Reconstructive memory
Schemas
War of the Ghosts
Evaluation
Strengths
Weaknesses
- Our memory is grouped into categories called "schemas"
- Sometimes we assimilate new information, changing our schemas to fit what we have learned
- Sometimes we accommodate new information, changing our memories to keep our schemas intact and unchanged (levelling and sharpening)
Memory is not like a tape recorder, it changes or "reconstructs" our experiences imaginatively.
Memory makes use of schemas to organise things. When we recall an event, our schemas tell us what is supposed to happen, and they might fill in gaps of our memory and may put pressure on our mind to remember things in a way that fits in with the schema.
- Bartlett showed 20 students a Native American ghost story which had unusual features
- Asked them to read and recall it on several occasions after hours, days, weeks or years (serial reproduction, and a Repeated Measures Design)
- Compared the recalled versions to the original version
- The story was shortened (330 words to 180 words)
- Unfamiliar parts were changed to familiar ideas in line with their schemas (canoes and paddles became boats and oars)
- Came up with explanations for unusual parts (rationalised)
Applying reconstructive memory
Unreliable eyewitnesses
Dementia and Alzheimer's
- Eyewitnesses to crimes reproduce their testimony to journalists, the police or a court (serial reproduction)
- Exposed to leading questions from the police (who have suspects in mind) or lawyers (who are trying to show someone as innocent or guilty)
- This should make eyewitness testimony unreliable, since memories change when we learn more information
- Understanding schemas can help with dementia patients
- Schemas help us make sense of things if they can be applied
- Familiar music from the past can be used, as well as old activities
Dementia village in Hogewey
- Residents live in areas of the village themed around their schemas
- The idea that we should "go along" with dementia sufferers' schemas is central to Validation Therapy
- Loftus carried out a range of lab experiments into reconstructive memory, which all had good experimental controls, standardised procedures and collected quantitative data -> objective and reliable
- Links to Tulving's theories about semantic memory
(our memory has semantic stores where we keep our understanding of relationships and rules, similar to schemas). If reconstructive memory is true, Tulving's ideas are more plausible. Semantic memory may have more influence over episodic memory as schemas dictate how we reconstruct our memories. - Helps us understand patients with memory loss (Clive Wearing) or dementia sufferers. They might still remember important schemas which can calm them, for example Clive Wearing still loved his wife and music. Validation Therapy involves "going along" with delusional ideas to not cause stress when a patient's schemas clash with the real world.
- Bartlett's study was not scientific and did not follow standardised procedures, no scoring system for measuring changes in recall other than counting the number of words -> research conclusions were subjective
- His research was particularly unrealistic, meaning the task lacks ecological validity, but Bartlett claimed the task had to be strange to prompt the participants to level and sharpen details in their memories.
Research into reconstructive memory
Allport and Postman (1947)
- Showed participants a drawing of an argument on a subway train and asked to describe it to another participant through serial reproduction