LTM - tulving and reconstructive - bartletts

1972 - that the LTM in the MSM was too simplistic and inflexible

semantic memory and episodic memory

refers to the conscious recall of facts and knowledge

refers to personal memories

semantic memory represents a mental encyclopaedia, memories are associated with other facts an concepts are linked together

episodic memory represents a mental diary, memories are linked to a time and context

memories are detached from any time reference as the factual information can be recalled without linking it to when it was learned

memories are dependent and linked to the time they happened

retrieval doesn’t depend on the context it was learned in and is based on inferences, generalisation, rational, logical thought

retrieval depends on the context the event experienced as we mentally re-experience a moment in the past to retrieve information

semantic memory can operate independently of episodic memory

episodic memory is unlikely to operate without semantic memory

information is less susceptible change as the memory trace is more robust

information can be changed as the memory trace can be transformed

supporting evidence from brain scans which showed that different parts of the brain are involved in episodic and semantic memory, case studies - K.C’s motorcycle accident that damaged episodic memory, H.M’s severely impaired episodic memory as he couldn’t remember owning a dog but still understood the concept of what a dog is

research has shown that LTM may include more than semantic and episodic memories as H.M still remembered how to perform tasks and could learn new skills

use of brain scanning techniques increases the scientific credibility of the theory

methods to test semantic an episodic memory may lack validity as they cannot be studies in isolation from one another, case studies used to explain the theory lack a control of variables

practical applications in aiding memory recall as strong episodic memories are easy to retrieve so semantic knowledge can be encoded as episodic memories using a mnemonic to attach the semantic knowledge into an imaginary story

1932 - memory was not like a tape recorder and can be changed and transformed

as it was culturally unfamiliar to participants, lacked rational order, dramatic nature of the story would encourage visual imaging and conclusion was supernatural

story became much shorter, used phrases from modern life, story had more of an order, people changed many words to more familiar words, many people left out the part about ghosts as they didn’t understand the role of them in the story - they rationalised their presence in some way

omissions (distortion and simplification) - leaving out parts that didn’t make sense, rationalisation - make the story more logical to the participant, transformation - putting part of the story in a different order or changing words to more familiar words

we use previous knowledge to interpret information so that it can be stored and recalled

using schemas which are simplified, generalised representations of everything that we know about something to help us store new information

mental constructs that form the structural or hardware components of the human memory systems and they are parcels of stored knowledge or a mental representation of information about a specific event or object

if new information conflicts with your pre-existing schema of the subject it might fail to encode it in the first place or manipulate how its encoded based on previous experiences and memories

when you later try to recall information you might recall only the elements that fit in with the relevant schema and other elements are distorted or forgotten

brewer and treyens (1981), loftus and palmer (1974), allport and postman (1947)

had participants wait in an office and asked them to recall items they’d seen, recalled expected items like a desk, stapler etc but not unexpected items like a pair of plyers, they also recalled expected items like a telephone that wasn’t there

participants memories could be altered through leading questions

showed participants a drawing of an argument on a subway and asked to describe it to another participant, in the drawing the black character was better dressed and more respectable than the white character but after serial reproduction the white participants tended to reverse the appearances and some described the black character as holding a knife

bartletts research is similar to real life use of memory

bartletts experiments lacked control and standardisation, finding were qualitative so his experiments may be open to subjective interpretation and lack validity, war of the ghosts story criticised for not being relevant to everyday memory

practical application as it can explain why eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, understanding schemas help supporting dementia sufferers as carers may use familiar music, old activities or reminiscing about events from the past to activate schemas that they are comfortable with

not all memories are inaccurate/affected by schemas as people often remembered “something black came out of his mouth” in the war of the ghosts story as it was unusual