Sponsor Area

Human Memory

Question
CBSEENPS11022354

What evidence do we have to say that ‘memory is a constructive process’?

Solution

According to Bartlett memory is a constructive process using meaningful materials such as texts, folk tales, fables, etc. Bartlett showed the manner in which content of any specific memory gets affected by a person’s knowledge, goals, motivation, preferences and various other psychological processes. He conducted experiments in which reading of such stimulus materials was followed by fifteen minutes break and then the participants of his experiment recalled what they had read.

Bartlett used the method of serial reproduction in which the participants of his experiments recalled the memory materials repeatedly at varying time intervals. While engaging in serial reproduction of learned material his participants committed a wide variety of ‘errors’ which Bartlett considered useful in understanding the process of memory construction. His participants altered the texts to make them more consistent with their knowledge, glossed over the unnecessary details, elaborate the main theme and transformed the material to look more coherent and rational.

In order to explain such findings, Bartlett invoked the term schema, which according to him was an active organisation of past reactions and past experiences. Memory, therefore, becomes an active process of construction where information is encoded and stored in terms of a person’s understanding and within her/his previous knowledge and expectations.