Reconstructive memory & Schema (AO1) - Bartlett 1932

• What is the reconstructive memory?

  > Focuses on LTM

  > Memories are never exact copies of what was first encoded

  > Fragments of stored information are reassembled

  > To register a new memory, must first search through previously stored memories

  > OUR MEMORIES ARE NOT REPRODUCTIONS, BUT RECONSTRUCTIONS
• What is the 'war of ghosts' study?

  > read the story

  > reproduce it 15 minutes later

  > showed the new version to another person and asked them to recall it

  > repeated this chain - serial reproduction

  Found that: story changed overtime p, became shorter through omissions, phrases altered to match participants own culture (canoe became boat), made the story more conventional and meaningful
• What is a schema?

  a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
• What is confabulation?

  Using assumptions to fill gaps in memory
• What is rationalization?

  Change the memory for it to make sense
• How is a schema developed?

  Developed in complexity with experience of the world and it is changed by new knowledge and experience
• How does a schema affect memory?

  > Encoding/storing - new knowledge conflicts with existing schema

  > Retrieval - only recall elements that fit with the relevant schema

  > Effort after meaning - information can be encoded once the meaning is understood