Reconstructive memory

Reconstructive Memory - We recall the outline of an event, and use schemas and leading questions to fill in the gaps

Leading Questions - questions that have a desired answer

Schemas - social and cultural mental representations formed through past experiences

Confabulation - distorted memories - memory based on fabricated or distorted information

False Memory - recalling an event that never happened and believing it's true


Loftus and Palmer (1974)

  • Aim: Whether leading questions affects eyewitness' estimation of speed

  • Effect of leading questions on Reconstruction Memory

  • IV: Different Intensities of the verbs used in the leading question

  • DV: Mean Speed Estimate

  • 45 students

  • Five Groups - Asked same question but had different word


Result

  • Highest Speed - Smashed - 40.5

  • Lowest - Contacted - 31.8

  • ↑ Intensity of verb = ↑ Estimate of speed


Verb

Smashed

Collided

Bumped

Hit

Contacted

Mean (mph)

40.5

39.3

38.1

34.0

31.8


Strength

Weakness

Lab Experiment

  • ↑ Internal Validity - Control Measure

    • Only showed them vid once

    • Same Video Used

    • You only see Car Crash once irl (a bit more ecologically valid)


  • ↓ Extraneous Variables


Independent Groups Designs

  • ↓ Likely to guess aim

    • No Demand Characteristics

  • No Order Effects

↓ Population Validity

  • Students, Limited Driving Experience


↓ Ecological Validity

  • Unrealistic Setting

  • In a real car crash, more emotion affects what people's actions will be


Independents Group Design

  • Driving Experience may vary

    • People might be better at estimating



Brewer and Treyens (1981)

  • Aim: Effect of existing schemas on memory

  • Investigate whether memories of object in a room (office) is influenced by existing schema of what to expect in an office


  • 86 University Psychology Students

  • Waited in office for 30 - 60 seconds

  • Had to recall what they saw in the office


Results

  • More likely to remember objects congruent with office schema

  • Less likely to remember objects incongruent with office schema - Skull, screwdriver

  • Reconstruction Errors - People remembered books when there weren't any


Conclusion

  • Schemas influence memory processing - PPS more likely to recall information consistent with office schema

  • Schemas can lead to biases - People recalled books when there weren't books - filled gaps in knowledge using schema


Strength

Weakness

↓ Demand Characteristics

  • Due to Deception


↑ Ecological Validity

  • Natural Office Setting

↓ Population Density

  • Only Uni Students

  • ↓ Generalisability


Ethical Issues - Deception - May make it difficult to replicate


Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

- CAN'T USE FOR 9 MARKERS!

  • Aim: Effect of leading questions on memory of eyewitness at a real crime scene

Method

  • A thief robbed a gun store and then was shot dead

  • 21 eyewitnesses, 13 agreed to be part of the study

  • Asked them leading questions, split into 2 groups, with 2 different leading questions

  • They were asked to rate their scale from 1 - 7

Results

  • Their answers weren't affected by the questions, and were accurate to the actual evidence

  • The Most Distressed people had the most accurate memories


Strength

W-eakness

Construct Validity

  • They had actual evidence - so they can test that it's testing what it needs to test


Field - Natural Setting, etc


↑ Ecological Validity

  • IRL Thing

  • Real life setting                                                              

Possible Researcher Bias


No Control Variables

  • Can't control extraneous variables, such as amount of rehearsal (hearing about it on the media etc)


Not Replicable - One-Off Incident

  • Not Generalisable


Qualitative data