Constructive Processes in Memory

Constructive Processes in Memory

n  Memory is also a constructive process, in which we actively organize and shape information as it is processed, stored, and retrieved.

“ . . . remembering is more like making up a story than it is like reading one printed in a book.”

Constructive processing - referring to the retrieval of memories in which those memories are altered, revised, or influenced by newer information.

Constructive Processes in memory: which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.

A key fact about memory is that it is a constructive pro­cess in which memories are influenced by the meaning given to what is being recalled.

Constructive Processes in Memory: Rebuilding the Past

The constructive processes are the processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events. When we retrieve information, then, the memory that is produced is affected not just by the direct prior experience we have had with the stimulus, but also by our guesses and inferences about its meaning.

The notion that memory is based on constructive processes was first put forward by Frederic Bartlett, a British psychologist. He suggested that people tend to remem­ber information in terms of schemas, organized bodies of information stored in (Harriett, 1932). Our reliance on schemas means that memories often consist of a general reconstruction of previous experience. Bartlett argued that schemas are based not only on the specific material to which people are exposed, but also on their understanding of the situation, their expectations about the situation, and their awareness of the motivations underlying the behavior of others.

One of the earliest demonstrations of schemas came from a classic study that involved a procedure similar to the children's game of "telephone," in which infor­mation from memory is passed sequentially from one person to another. In the study, a participant viewed a drawing in which there were a variety of people of differing racial and ethnic backgrounds on a subway car, one of whom—a white person—was shown with a razor in his hand. The first participant was asked to describe the drawing to someone else without looking back at it. Then that person was asked to describe it to another person (without looking at the drawing), and then the process was repeated with still one more participant.

The report of the last person differed in significant, yet systematic, ways from the initial drawing. Specifically, many people described the drawing as depicting an African American with a knife—an incorrect recollection, given that the drawing showed a razor in the hand of a Caucasian person. The transformation of the Cau­casian's razor into an African American's knife clearly indicates that the participants held a schema that included the unwarranted prejudice that African Americans are more violent titan Caucasians and thus more apt to be holding a knife. In short, our expectations and knowledge—and prejudices—affect the reliability of our memories.