Memory Is a Constructive and Dynamic System Rather Than a Passive Mechanism for Recording External Information. Evaluate This Claim, Making Reference to Research Findings. Essay Example
Exploring Psychology
Memory is a constructive and dynamic system rather than a passive mechanism for recording external information. Evaluate this claim, making reference to research findings.
The concept that the memory is a constructive and dynamic system was originally introduced by Sir Frederic Bartlett, in the 1920’s. According to Bartlett, social factors influence one’s ability to remember, and in turn, can either change a person’s perception of a specific memory or distort the original memory. As opposed to the memory being a ‘passive mechanism’ which indicates that the brain can store data and facts which can later be recalled without distortion and remain as they were when they were first encoded.
Bartlett suggests that a person’s interpretation of an event can be influenced by their own beliefs and life experiences, either because of the way they were brought up or because of an event that has occurred to them and influenced the way they feel about something. Bartlett designed an experiment which was based on a story called “The War of the Ghosts”, as part of the experiment, participants were asked to read the story and then later recall the facts from memory. The findings of his research highlighted that people generally recalled the story with different facts from the original, and that these different depictions of the story were inconsistent between each participant. Bartell suggested that the errors made when the story was recalled were due to the participant replacing “unfamiliar or inconsistent material” with information that they could relate to from their own experiences (Brace, 2007, p132). He also used the term “rationalization” in relation to such discrepancies. His definition of this terminology is that when the story was recalled by a participant they used different descriptions to explain events which they could not mentally relate to or “rationalise” with real life, for example, rather than recalling “something black
Memory is a constructive and dynamic system rather than a passive mechanism for recording external information. Evaluate this claim, making reference to research findings.
The concept that the memory is a constructive and dynamic system was originally introduced by Sir Frederic Bartlett, in the 1920’s. According to Bartlett, social factors influence one’s ability to remember, and in turn, can either change a person’s perception of a specific memory or distort the original memory. As opposed to the memory being a ‘passive mechanism’ which indicates that the brain can store data and facts which can later be recalled without distortion and remain as they were when they were first encoded.
Bartlett suggests that a person’s interpretation of an event can be influenced by their own beliefs and life experiences, either because of the way they were brought up or because of an event that has occurred to them and influenced the way they feel about something. Bartlett designed an experiment which was based on a story called “The War of the Ghosts”, as part of the experiment, participants were asked to read the story and then later recall the facts from memory. The findings of his research highlighted that people generally recalled the story with different facts from the original, and that these different depictions of the story were inconsistent between each participant. Bartell suggested that the errors made when the story was recalled were due to the participant replacing “unfamiliar or inconsistent material” with information that they could relate to from their own experiences (Brace, 2007, p132). He also used the term “rationalization” in relation to such discrepancies. His definition of this terminology is that when the story was recalled by a participant they used different descriptions to explain events which they could not mentally relate to or “rationalise” with real life, for example, rather than recalling “something black