Flashcards
Reconstructive Memory - Bartlett
Cards in this deck (17)
- 1Basis of reconstructive memoryRecall is influenced by personal interpretation dependent on our learnt or cultural norms and values, and the way we make sense of the world. We extract the meaning behind information rather than recalling it exactly as it's presented. We make sense of information by trying to fit it into schemas.
- 2SchemasAn organised package of information that stores our knowledge about the world - one for each aspect of our lives. They are involved in reconstructing memories however they are capable or distorting unfamiliar or 'unacceptable' information in order to fit with existing knowledge in our schemas.
- 3What is meant by reconstruction being an active process?we unconsciously fill in gaps in our memory.
- 4Year of Bartlett's study?1932
- 5AimTo investigate how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge. He wanted to see if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when recalled.
- 6HypothesisMemory is reconstructive and people will store and retrieve information according to expectations from cultural schemas.
- 7ProcedureSerial reproduction (ppts hear a story) and are told to reproduce it after a short time and then again over a period of weeks/days/years.
- 8Story toldWar of the Ghosts - filled with unknown names and concepts to the British ppts
- 9FindingsPpts distorted the story in recall. 3 patterns found:
Sharpening - ppts changed the order of the story to make sense of it.
Levelling - the story became shorter as ppts cut out irrelevant info.
Assimilation - story got more consistent with ppts own cultural expectations. - 10ConclusionRemembering is an active process where information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas - this is done to create meaning in the incoming data as humans are constantly searching for meaning. Bartlett formulated the theory of reconstructive memory from this research.
- 11What year was Allport and Postman?1947
- 12What did they find?When asked to recall details of a picture, ppts tended to report that it was the black man holding the razor - schemas of racial stereotypes influenced their memory. (supports)
- 13What year was Brewer and Treyens?1981
- 14What did they do?ppts were taken into a university student office and left for 35 secs before being taken into another room
- 15What did they find?When asked to remember as much as they could from the room, ppts recalled things of a typical office - they didn't recall the wine and picnic basket in the office. (supports idea of schemas filling in the gaps etc.)
- 16Weakness of Bartlett's study?Ppts didn't receive standardised instructions and some of the memory distortions may be due to demand characteristics
- 17How are schemas reductionist?The theory describes memory as being reconstructive but doesn't describe the process.
It's unclear how schemas are acquired and how people choose between schemas.