reconstructive memory

Question 1

what is reconstructive memory ?

Answer 1

fragments of stored information are reassembled during recall. the gaps are filled with our expectations and our beliefs so we produce a ‘story’ that makes sense.

Question 2

what is a schema ?

Answer 2

a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. we are born with some schema but they develop complexity with experience of the world.

Question 3

who conducted the ‘war of the ghosts’ study ?

Answer 3

Bartlet

Question 4

describe the ‘war of the ghosts’ study

Answer 4

1. british participants were shown a folklore from a different culture, the war of the ghosts, so that is would be unfamiliar
2. he showed them the story and then asked them to reproduce it 15 minutes later
3. he then showed the new version to another person and then asked them to reproduce it a short time later
4. he then repeated this structure another few times

Question 5

what is the name of the technique used in the ‘war of the ghosts’ study ?

Answer 5

serial reproduction

Question 6

what were the findings ?

Answer 6

• he found that the story was transformed over time
• it became shorter through omissions (people left details out that were unfamiliar - levelling)
• phrases were changed to match the persons own culture (canoe became boat - confabulation)
• the reconstructions were not random, they made the story more conventional, coherent and meaningful to the participants.

Question 7

how did Bartlett explain the results of the ‘war of the ghosts’ study ?

Answer 7

in terms of his schema theory

Question 8

what two ways does the schema affect memory ?

Answer 8

1. what you encode (new knowledge that conflicts with an existing schema could easily fail to be encoded)
2. what you retrieve (when you later try to recall the memory you might only recall what fits with your relevant schema). other elements may be forgotten or are recalled in a distorted form.