Psychology Reconstructive Memory and Eyewitness Testimony

Study Notes

Reconstructive Memory

Memory is not a passive recording but an active reconstruction, influenced by inferences during encoding and retrieval.
Information present after an event, perspectives during retrieval, and general knowledge influence memory.
Expectations and assumptions can also play a role in memory recall.

Attentional Blindness and Change Blindness

Attentional blindness demonstrates that things can happen in plain sight, yet be missed.
Change blindness occurs when a change happens during a shift in attention (e.g., an interruption).

Eyewitness Memory

Weapon Focus: Eyewitnesses may concentrate on a weapon, potentially distracting them from other important details.
Studies show that the presence of a weapon can significantly affect eyewitness identification accuracy (e.g., Loftus et al., 1987; Loftus, 1979; Pickle, 1999).
The type of item (e.g., gun vs. pen) and the unexpected nature of an item affect identification accuracy.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Procedural Memory: Stores information about skills (motor and cognitive), including classical conditioning effects.
Declarative Memory: Holds information about facts and personally experienced events. This further breaks down into:
- Episodic Memory: Stores personally experienced events with contextual details (time, place).
- Semantic Memory: Stores general knowledge, independent of time or place.

Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm

Participants often recall "critical lures" (words semantically related to presented words) as if they were actually part of the list.
Warnings during recall don't reduce false memory.
Warnings during encoding before studying the list reduces false memories. This indicates that a part of the effect happens during encoding.

Bartlett (1932) and Schemas

Bartlett studied errors in recalling complex stories, emphasizing the role of meaning & organization in encoding and retrieval.
His concept of "effort after meaning" highlights the active process people use to make sense of and organize information.
He introduced the concept of schemas: organized bodies of knowledge used to encode and retrieve information.

Schemas

Schemas are frameworks of knowledge representing the world (e.g., people, events, actions). They organize information which affects memory recall.

Summary

Recall is a constructive process shaped by inferences and prior knowledge.
Attentional and memory biases can lead to errors in eyewitness accounts and memory recollection.
Schemas play a powerful role in memory encoding and retrieval.

Description

This quiz explores the concepts of reconstructive memory, attentional blindness, and the nuances of eyewitness memory. It includes how external factors like weapons can impact memory recall and identification accuracy. Test your understanding of these psychological phenomena and their implications in real-life situations.