Reconstructive memory

Episodic memory: Episodic memory includes contextual information about experienced events, including how things looked, sounded, and smelled, as well as the emotions that were experienced. Episodic memories are reconstructed.

Leveling: Leveling is when we leave out details when recalling a memory; this may be because the details were schema incongruent, they were not seen as important, or they were not understood.

Reconstructive memory: a theory of memory recall, in which the act of remembering is influenced by other cognitive processes including perception, past experience, imagination, and beliefs.

Schema: Mental representations that are derived from prior experience and knowledge. Schemas help us to predict what to expect based on what has happened before.  They are used to organize our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide our behaviour, and to help us to make sense of current experiences.

Tversky and Kahnemann

Aim: to test the influence of the anchoring bias on decision-making (An anchor is the first piece of information offered to someone who is asked to solve a problem or make a decision

**Procedure:**A sample of highschoolers were split into two groups \n \n Ascending: participants in this condition were asked to calculate the total of 1x2x-8 \n \n Descending: participants were asked to estimate the total of "8x7x6-1"

Findings:

• Median for ascending group was 512 and median for descending group was 2250 but actual value was 40320
• Anchor is smaller then so is final estimate (1x2 for ascending group) (8x7 for descending group)