COGNITIVE reconstructive memory model

Question 1

who proposed this theory

Answer 1

Bartlett

Question 1

how do we make new memories

Answer 1

search through previously stored information by using schemas

Question 2

define ‘schemas’

Answer 2

menatl frameworks that help us to organise information and the relationships between them

Question 3

how do we dvelop schemas

Answer 3

through previous experinces we have had (e.g seeing a dog for the first time and thinking it’s a cat)

Question 4

what happens when we recall a memory

Answer 4

we reconstruct it

Question 5

define the term ‘effort after meaning’

Answer 5

we can store information once we make sense of it and it gains meaning

Question 6

define rationalisation

Answer 6

we may change the memory for it to make sense uncontiously

Question 7

define confabulation

Answer 7

make things up to fill in the gaps unconsiously - this may come from a steryotype we hold

Question 8

positive evaluation points

Answer 8

• supporting evidence - Loftus et al - car accidents speeds were changed when differenct verbs used - memory changed by schemas
• psychology in society - Devlin Report (1976) - we should not convict someone with only single eyewitness account
• supporting evidence - Bartlett’s ‘war of the ghosts’ - each production of the stroy was reconstructed differently

Question 9

negative evaluation points

Answer 9

• lacks credibility - no scientific detail from the brain - other theories provide evidence e.g. brain scans for episodic and semantic memory
• lacks credibility - Bartlett evolved the theory off the study - all smaple from Cambridge - cannot be generalised
• reductionist - isolates schemas as the factor - ignores other concepts such as rehearsal