4. Reconstructive memory
Story Analysis: War of the Ghosts
Summary of the tale:
Two young men from Egulac hunt seals at the river.
They hear war-cries, fear a conflict, and hide behind a log.
A canoe with five men approaches, inviting one young man to join them in an impending battle.
The hesitant young man believes he may be killed, while his companion boards the canoe.
During the fight, it is suggested that the companion has been shot, but he feels fine and later informs others he fought with ghosts before succumbing to an unexplained ailment, dying mysteriously.
Introduction to Memory Concepts
Memory Types:
Episodic Memory: recollection of personal experiences.
Semantic Memory: facts and knowledge.
Procedural Memory: skills and actions.
Memory Processes: encoding, storage, retrieval.
Multi-store Model of Memory: consists of sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory, each differing in capacity, duration, and coding.
Primary and Recency Effects: observed in sequence recall; recent items are remembered better than older items.
Reconstructive Memory Theory
Importance of Schemas
Definition and Function:
Schemas are organized information packages that help categorize knowledge about the world and assist in memory recall.
Structure: Each schema holds stereotypes and expectations.
Example schemas: person schemas, social schemas, and event schemas, each defining how we relate to people and situations based on past knowledge.
Active Memory Reconstruction
Memory gaps often fill automatically and unconsciously.
Distortions occur through schema influence, leading to altered but believed real memories.
Evaluation Criteria: Reconstructive Memory
Barlett’s Perspective: Memory encompasses alterations driven by culture and values.
Investigative aim: Can memories be fundamentally changed?
Method: Participants recall the ‘War of the Ghosts’ story repeatedly over time.
Results: Aspects of the story distorted due to cultural unfamiliarity; terms like 'canoe' were replaced with 'boat'.
Conclusion: Memory is distorted to conform to schemas.
The Application in Real Life
Bartlett suggested memory is not precise; it reconstructs based on previous knowledge.
Significance of the theory: it informs the understanding of eyewitness testimony reliability, indicating that two witnesses may recall events differently yet honestly believe in the accuracy of their memories.
Learning Outcomes
All students should be able to describe reconstructive memory.
Most will evaluate based on Bartlett's research, while some can apply it to exam questions.
Challenge Reflection
Real-world application of reconstructive memory theory is highlighted in cases of eyewitness discrepancies, as shown by characters Ann and Martin, who witness the same event but recall different details. The explanations relate to their unique backgrounds and cognitive schemas, affecting how each reconstructs the memory.