Reconstructive Memory

• Bartlett researched first and then created the theory
• Participants (Europeans) had to read the Native American story 'War of Ghosts' and recall the story over different periods of time
• Because it was an unusual story from a different culture, the Europeans made a number of mistakes in their recall- TRANSFORMATION 
• Participants were changing unfamiliar information to make it fit their own culture
• There were more changes after each recollection and it became more simple- SIMPLIFICATION

Bransford and Johnson 1972:

• Participants shown passage about laundry, 1/3 knew about it, 1/3 were told what it was about afterwards and understood it & 1/3 didn't know at all and couldn't make sense of it

To conclude, we make sense of a situation using prior knowledge called schemas 

• Bartlett believed memory is an active construction of what we think we see using prior knowledge to guide us 
• We make effort after meaning- mix up events with elements of our existing knowledge and expectations 
• Schemas --> packages of information about what we know

When we process a memory 2 things are used:

• Perception --> we apply labels to objects and events based on past experiences and knoweldge
• Imaging --> we use our own stored images to interpret memory

So, when we make a memory, it is constructed, previous knowledge is used to interpret information to be stored and past knoweldge is used to actively reconstruct memories to be recalled

• TRANSFORMATION --> when the information does not fit with the schema, it is changed
• RATIONALISATION --> to fill in the gaps
• DISTORTION --> the action of giving a misleading account or impression
• SIMPLIFICATION --> to take information out that does not make sense