What are schemas? | An organised system of information or knowledge that we have on a particular event or situation. |
How do schemas develop? | Through personal experiences and influence how we perceive and remember. |
What do schemas help us do? | Make more sense of the world around and helps us to 'fill in the gaps' |
What is active reconstruction? | A memory that is not an exact copy of what you experience, but a reconstructive of the event that has been influence by your schemas. |
What are 2 ways that our schemas affect recall and memory? | Familiarisation and omissions |
What is familiarisation? | Changing unfamiliar details so that they fit our own schemas |
What is omissions? | When we leave out details |
What are 2 reasons for these changes? | Rationalisation and transformations |
What is rationalisation? | Adding details to give more meaning to something that may not have fitted with original schema. |
What is transformations? | When the details are changed |
What does Bartlett think about memories? | They are active reconstructions that are affected by our schemas that are unique to us and formed through life experiences. |
What is one way Bartlett found that schemas affect our memory? | Omissions |
What is an example of omissions that Bartlett found? | Participants left out unfamiliar place name when why retold 'war of the ghosts' |
What is one way Bartlett found that schemas affect our memory? | Transformations |
What is an example of transformations that Bartlett found? | Ppts changed canoes to boats, making it more more familiar and meaningful (familiarisation and rationalisation |
Strength of Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory? | Has real life application, it can help understanding of eyewitness testimony and why it may be unreliable. |
Strength of Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory? | Used storytelling as a memory task which is something people do in everyday life, this means it has high ecological validity. |
A weakness of Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory? | Lacked control, did not control the time intervals, low internal validity |
A weakness of Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory? | Not subjective because it a holistic approach in his research. More interested in individual memoires rather than using scientific methods to support theory. |