Reconstructive memory

Who proposed the theory? When?

Bartlett, 1932

Summary?

Theory suggests that memory is not so much a tape recording of our lives so far, but a reconstruction of it. Bartlett suggested that memory is not perfectly formed, encoded and retrieved and distortion is likely to occur. He suggested that our schemas affect the way memory is stored or recalled as we actively try and make sense of new information based on what we already know.

What are schemas?

The mental structures built on our previous knowledge and experiences which help us organise and interpret information.

What are the three patterns of distortion?

Confabulation, levelling, rationalisation

What is confabulation?

Where gaps in memory are filled in with distorted or false memories

What is levelling?

Where individuals simplify information, omitting details that don’t fit into their expected schemas

What is rationalisation?

Where individuals create seemingly logical explanation for information that doesn’t make sense to them

Describe the procedure of the ‘War of the Ghosts’ study

Bartlett recruited 20 British participants and had them read a Native American story twice to test the effect of time lapse on recall, after several minutes, weeks, months and years with the longest time lapse being six and a half years. This particular folk story was chosen as it was culturally unfamiliar, lacked any rational story order, had a dramatic nature to encourage visual imaging and the conclusion was somewhat supernatural.

Findings of ‘War of the Ghosts’ study?

The three patterns of distortion were seen.

• confabulation was seen as the participants unconsciously filled in gaps in their memories with false, distorted information believing it to be correct (eg- hunting seals became fishing)

• levelling was seen as participants simplified the information, omitting details that didn’t fit into their expected schemas

• rationalisation was seen as participants created seemingly logical explanations for behaviours / elements of the story that they didn’t understand (eg- canoes became boats)

Strength of the theory?

Supported by empirical research evidence. For example, Bartlett’s ‘War of the Ghosts’ study found that when the participants were asked to recall the culturally unfamiliar story over different periods of time, 3 patterns of distortion were seen (confabulation, levelling and rationalisation) demonstrating how the participant’s memories distorted in order to reflect their schemas, supporting Bartlett’s idea that memory is a reconstruction.

Weakness of the theory?

Further research has showed that Bartlett may be incorrect in suggesting that memory is reconstructed and therefore distorted upon each recall. Wynn and Logie (1998) conducted a replication of his study but used a real life situation. They asked first year psychology students to recall events from their first week at university and found that there was only a small reduction in the amount of information recalled, even after a period of 6 months. Therefore, family real life situations may be less susceptible to the reconstruction Bartlett suggested and memory is in fact like a tape recorder.