How people recall memories

How people recall memoriesIn 1932 British psychologist Frederick Bartlet put earlier a theory of how people organise and recall memory. His vagary was that memory is non like a video recorder that can be played back, but that in fact there ar a number of factors that lead to distortion and reconstruction of information. His theory is k presentlyn as rehabilitative memory and his ideas are still in use in menses psychological look for, such as eyewitness testimony, false memory syndrome, and even in the field of artificial intelligence This essay will explain Bartletts theory, its strengths and weaknesses, its implications in the understanding of how the mind organises, stores and recalls information, and how Bartletts ideas have been incorporated and expanded.Bartlett asserted that peoples recall of events is often inaccurate as reconstruction and distortion of information takes place, intimately at heart the mind. The initial stimulus is interpreted in but as one can only give a certain amount of attention to a stimulus previous experience, and knowledge, which he referred to as schemas, are used to construct a fuller picture internally. For example, if one was walking down a aristocratic alley one might feel on edge, one suddenly notices a person approaching. An existing schema for this situation would exist and will in all probability result in the construction of a sinister character approaching, despite having no previous knowledge of the person. A schema is organised previous knowledge, an internal office of how one perceives the world. Bartlett considered schemas to be maps or structures of knowledge stored in long-term memory. (May 07th 2008) www.wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/SchemasIn 1932 Bartlett composed a short fable which he named war of the ghosts. The fable was an old Native American folk write up which would have been unfamiliar to the western participants. Generally it presented as a logical representation of events but within it was held much subtly illogical or irrational content. The story was recited to the participants who were asked to recall it after twenty hours, and again at varying intervals afterwards. He discovered that most people found it extremely difficult to recall the story exactly, even when the fable was read repeatedly. Bartlet hypothesised that, elements of the story which failed to fit into the schemata of the participant were omitted from their recollection, or reconstructed into more familiar forms. He remarked that people manipulate an effort after meaning to make sense of information any information which did not correspond with their cultural experiences, norms, or values, or that were unfamiliar, tended to be excluded from the recollection of the participants. This resulted in a reduced, direct version of the story. Bartlett remarked that in the end, no trace of an nonpareil or supernatural element was left we had a perfectly straight forward story of a fight and a death. (2010) www.docstoc.comBartletts ideas were revolutionary and drew umpteen responses, positive, and negative. Bartletts research into practical aspects of memory, with an approach that set out to study how the human memory system is applied in every day, real flavour situations, is seen as a fundamental strength of the reconstructive memory model. However, his experiment was criticised for the methods employed. Bartlett was stopping students on their journeys around the Cambridge campus and reciting the war of the ghosts. He would often have to hold off until he met them again before he could ask them to recall their version of the story. His methods were considered as being unscientific and his work was rejected by some as a result. Bartletts idea of schemas was rejected as being too vague, and hard to back up with empirical evidence. Also it was argued that Bartletts idea of reading participants an unfamiliar story could have actually been a factor in why participants reconstructed par ts of the story when they recalled it. Despite the criticism, Bartletts ideas regarding schemas, and reconstructive memories, are still in use, and are still prevalent in various fields of current psychological research. The reconstructive memory model was an important breakthrough which is still very a great deal relevant in todays modern world. For example, a fundamental tactic employed by the jurisprudence to catch and convict criminals is eye witness testimony. But how trustworthy is this method if memory really works as Bartlett suggested.With the emergence of new technologies such as CCTV, in some cases, it has now been possible to explore the reliability of eye witness testimonies. One example of false eye witness testimony was the case concerning Charles Mendes, a Brazilian man who was shot by police in a case of mistaken identity after the terrorist bombings in London. Witnesses recalled Mr Mendes jumping over the book barrier and running away from the police before he was shot dead by the police. Later CCTV footage of the event that emerged clearly showed that this was false information and in fact Charles Mendes actually bought a ticket and only ran to avoid missing the train. Recent tests concerning reconstructive memory have also raised doubt over the reliability of eye witness testimony. In 1974 Elizabeth Loftus conducted a series of experiments to explore the reliability of eye witness testimony.In 1974, Loftus and Palmer conducted experiments in which participants were used in an independent measures design. They were shown footage of a car crash and hence separated into three groups of fifty. The first group was asked, how fast were the cars going when they total each other? The second group was asked the question but the word hit was changed to smashed. The independent variable being the changed word. The third group was not asked the question this group was used as a control group. The findings showed that the wording of the question at present affected the estimation of the cars speed. When the question was asked using the word hit, the lowest estimation was given. When the question was asked using the word smashed, participants responded with the highest estimation of the cars speed. After seven days, the participants were asked if they had seen broken blur after the accident Loftus and Palmer found that participants who had been asked the question with the word smashed had been consistently more likely to answer yes (wrongly).The findings of Loftus and Palmers 1974 car crash experiments reinforced and continued the reconstructive memory theory. It has raised questions concerning the reliability of eye witness testimony as a result of this work, juries are no longer allowed to convict a defendant on the basis of eye witness testimony alone. Their work has also led to the police revising the way they interview witnesses to avoid misleading questions which could befoul the original recollection of events, an d in order to aid a witness to recall as much of a situation or event as possible, the police now conduct cognitive interviews. The understanding of how the mind stores and retrieves information has aided the police, whose modified interview techniques are now thought to be more successful in drawing often vital details held in the memory of witnesses. These can be used to solve crimes, help to bring stark criminals to justice, and are more accurate, hopefully leading to less cases of wrongful convictions due to false information or mistaken identity.There are criticisms that can be directed towards Loftus and Palmer for their experimental methods in 1974 it has been argued that due to a lack of participant variety, the findings of the experiment cannot be viewed as universally applicable as the participants were all students. another(prenominal) point that has been made is that the results could have been affected by demand characteristics the participants could have given answers according to what they thought the researchers wanted to hear. It has also been argued that the experiments were artificial real life situations could have different results. In a real situation there are potentially severe legal and moral consequences involved with distorted recollections of events in a court of law this is not the case in a laboratory experiment.These concerns have now been addressed by more recent research that has based experiments in a more realistic, every day context. This new research, such as the Open University and BBC project, appears to confirm much of what Loftus and Palmer asserted. Participants witnessed a stabbing and were taken to the station by the police for cognitive interviews. They were unaware that the situation had been staged. Dr Pike, a psychologist involved with the project echoed comments remarked by Elizabeth Loftus when he commented on the findings speaking of how the mind is malleable, not fixed, he remarked that its not like imputing data into a computer, the mind does not store facts absolutely the way they are and it does not recall them absolutely accurately either. Winterman, D (2010) www.news.bbc.co.ukFurther research by Loftus has led to greater understanding of how the mind reacts differently in stressful situations such as at the convulsion of a crime taking place. It is now understood that when a weapon is involved, ones attention tends to focus on the threatening object. As a consequence, ones recall of off-base details diminishes. Loftus asserted that weapon anxiety can be responsible for ones inability to recall the perpetrator, and or crucial details or events of a crime. It is now understood that age, and ones emotional verbalize, are factors to be considered concerning accurate recall. It is also widely accepted that people are more likely to misinterpret a situation, make errors, or make crucial mistakes when they are scared or in shock. Although in some instances, an extreme situation can le ad to a state of heightened awareness, which can in turn lead to flashbulb memories potentially extremely accurate detailed memories of an event or situation.Having explored Bartletts theory of reconstructive memory, and later research by Loftus and Palmer that continued it, one can see that these theories have facilitated a much greater understanding of the complexities of human memory. Bartlett put forward an bill of aspects of human memory that other models of memory do not account for. Most, if not all people would have experience with memories that are vague, or unclear. How some times have you recalled an event, only for the person next to you, who shared the experience with you, to contradict you, with a completely different account of the events? Reconstructive memory puts forward an explanation for why this can happen of how memory does not always reflect an accurate account of an event or situation. Loftus and Palmers continued research into reconstructive memory has fur ther supported the theory. Their work has had important repercussions in areas such as law and police procedure. The reconstructive memory theory continues to exert a significant influence in todays modern world.Cardwell M, Clark L, Meldrum C. (2003) Psychology for A Level, Harper Collins.Gross R. (2009) Psychology. The Science of Mind and Behaviour 5th Edition, Hodder Arnold.Gross R, Rolls G. (2003) Essential AS Psychology, Hodder Stoughton.www.google.com/http//www.bookrags.com/wiki/Frederic_Bartlett (accessed 26th April 2010)(May 7th 2008) www.google.com/http//wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Schemas(accessed 26 April 2010)(2010) www.google.com/http//www.docstoc.com/docs/33510508/The-War-of-the-Ghosts/ (accessed 26th April 2010)www.google.com/http//www.s-cool.co.uk/alevel/psychology/human-memory/criti (accessed 26th April 2010)Winterman, D. 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