Scribd
Upload
365 views

ERQ Reconstructive Memory

Our memory is reconstructive and prone to errors. We actively combine previous knowledge and schemas to recall memories rather than storing them as exact replicas. Bartlett's study showed that cultural background affects recall as participants unconsciously changed a foreign story to fit their own schemas. Brewer and Tryans found that recall of objects in an office depended on schemas, with congruent items remembered better and incongruent ones forgotten or altered. While reconstructive memory sometimes introduces errors, it also helps with prediction, inference and creativity. Further research is needed to better understand the reconstruction process and apply findings to real-world situations.

Uploaded by

tamara mehdi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
365 views

ERQ Reconstructive Memory

Our memory is reconstructive and prone to errors. We actively combine previous knowledge and schemas to recall memories rather than storing them as exact replicas. Bartlett's study showed that cultural background affects recall as participants unconsciously changed a foreign story to fit their own schemas. Brewer and Tryans found that recall of objects in an office depended on schemas, with congruent items remembered better and incongruent ones forgotten or altered. While reconstructive memory sometimes introduces errors, it also helps with prediction, inference and creativity. Further research is needed to better understand the reconstruction process and apply findings to real-world situations.

Uploaded by

tamara mehdi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Prepared ERQ for Reconstructive memory

Discuss research on reconstructive memory.


Humans do not remember memories as exact photographs, but rather
actively combine schemas and information to recall memories, and this may
sometimes cause error. Our memory is reconstructive and can change at any
stage, encoding, storage, or recall. This makes our memories not reliable
sometimes. Humans rely on their previous knowledge and if they don’t remember
some details, they tend to fill in the gaps based on their schemas. For example, if
a student is asked who was in his class last Monday, he will answer with his
classmates and teacher. What if one of his friends was absent that day? The
student did not remember that day exactly and who was there, but rather relied
on the basic information of who usually is in class to answer the question.
However, there is a theory about flashbulb memories, which states that very
emotional memories are highly accurate due to their emotional intensity and
cannot be distorted. Bartlet and Brewer and tryan’s experiments studied the
reliability of memory.
Bartlett:
- Aim: see how cultural background affects recall of a story
- Procedure: British participants were told a Native American story that was very
foreign and unknown to them. The experiment was independent measures
design where participants were divided into 2 groups. The first group had to do
repeated reproduction where they had to retell the story several times. While the
second group had serial reproduction where they had to retell the story to
another participant who will also reproduce the story to another person.
- Results: it seemed there was no difference between the 2 conditions, both
groups changed the story unconsciously due to memory distortion. There was
presence of assimilation, where participants add the info of the story to their
already existing schema, and leveling where participants omit some details they
do not find important. In addition to sharpening where participants “fill in the
gaps” from their own schemas and change the sequence of events
- Link: Bartlett's study indicates that memory is a process where information is
changed and reconstructed to fit into existing schemas in order to create
meaning during encoding, storage and retrieval.

Strengths: -even if lab experiment, it had high ecological validity


Limitations: - no control grp
-no IV
-no standardized instructions therefore not easily replicated,
therefore low reliability
- Not scientific

Brewer and Tryans


- Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of schema in encoding
and retrieval of episodic memory.
- Procedure: participants were asked to sit in a room that was made to look like
an office, it had objects typical of/b an office, like a typewriter, papers, shelves,
coffee pot, electronics, and other objects that are not typical in an office, like a
skull, screwdriver, piece of bark, and toy top. The lab experiment had an
independent measures design and divided the participants into 3 experimental
groups. One group had to do a written recall condition where participants had
to write down a detailed description of all the objects they remembered from
the room including their size, shape, color, and location. Another group had
the drawing condition where they were given an outline of the room and
asked to draw the objects they remembered in their right places, and the last
condition was verbal recognition condition where participants were read a list
of objects and asked whether or not they were in the room.
- Results: the drawing and writing conditions were more likely to remember the
objects congruent to their schema, and forget the objects that were not typical
in offices (skull, screwdriver…), they also tended to change the nature of the
object to match their schema. The verbal recognition condition was more likely
to recognize the incongruent items of the office, however they identified
objects that were congruent to the schema of an office but were not actually
present in the room (books, pens, lamp…)
- Link: this shows that memories are not exact snapshots and are reconstructed
based on the person’s own schema.

Strengths: -both quantitative and qualitative results


- Researcher did a pilot study to see what the participant’s schema of
an office was
Limitations: -deception (participants sat in the office waiting but did not know the
experiment started)
-does not explain why 9/30 participants from the verbal recall
condition recalled books but only 1/30 recalled curtains or a lamp

Evaluation of reconstructive memory:


Understanding reconstructive memory is important because it has helped police better
handle eyewitnesses.
Reconstructive memory sometimes leads to error but it helps people predict and infer the
future and be creative.
There is significant amount of research to support the theory, however it is mostly high in
internal validity and low in ecological validity. Which means we don’t know to what extent the
results can be applied to real life circumstances.
It is not explained HOW memory is reconstructed.

In conclusion, we cannot always trust and rely on our memories because they are reconstructive.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy