Talk:Reconstructive memory

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 February 2020 and 2 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jangofett27.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:01, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Reconstructive process restructuring

I would like to propose a series of changes to the Reconstructive process section of this article. Namely, the sentence In this manner, the various features of the experience must be joined together to form a coherent representation of the episode and if this binding process fails it can result in source memory failure, where later attempted retrieval of the episode results in fragmented recollection and an inability to consolidate the information into a cohesive narrative of a past experience. needs a citation. I'm unsure that source memory failure is the best term to describe this phenomenon, and if a different term fits better, it may necessitate a restructuring of this section. I'll continue to look into alternative means of restating the above coherently and with justification. Jangofett27 (talk) 19:28, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

I would propose the following replacement for the Reconstructive process section: --Jangofett27 (talk) 20:02, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Memory rarely relies on a literal recount of past experiences. By using multiple interdependent cognitive processes, there is never a single location in the brain where a given complete memory trace of an experience is stored. Rather, memory is dependent on constructive processes during encoding that may introduce errors or distortions. Essentially, the constructive memory process functions by encoding the patterns of perceived physical characteristics, as well as the interpretive conceptual and semantic functions that act in response to the incoming information.

In this manner, the various features of the experience must be joined together to form a coherent representation of the episode. If this binding process fails, it can result in memory errors. The complexity required for reconstructing some episodes is quite demanding and can result in incorrect or incomplete recall. This complexity leaves individuals susceptible to phenomena such as the misinformation effect across subsequent recollections. By employing reconstructive processes, individuals supplement other aspects of available personal knowledge and schema into the gaps found in episodic memory in order to provide a fuller and more coherent version, albeit one that is often distorted.

Many errors can occur when attempting to retrieve a specific episode. First, the retrieval cues used to initiate the search for a specific episode may be too similar to other experiential memories and the retrieval process may fail if the individual is unable to form a specific description of the unique characteristics of the given memory they would like to retrieve. When there is little available distinctive information for a given episode there will be more overlap across multiple episodes, leading the individual to recall only the general similarities common to these memories. Ultimately proper recall for a desired target memory fails due to the interference of non-target memories that are activated because of their similarity.

Secondly, a large number of errors that occur during memory reconstruction are caused by faults in the criterion-setting and decision making processes used to direct attention towards retrieving a specific target memory. When there are lapses in recall of aspects of an episodic memory, the individual tends to supplement other aspects of knowledge that are unrelated to the actual episode in order to form a more cohesive and well-rounded reconstruction of the memory, regardless of whether or not the individual is aware of such supplemental processing. This process is known as confabulation. All of the supplemental processes occurring during the course of reconstruction rely on the use of schema, information networks that organize and store abstract knowledge in the brain.

Hey Jangofett27, I think that this would be a change that would positively impact this article by making it clearer and more informational. Your sources are great at backing up the summaries of reconstructive memory and the edit overall shows a drastic improvement in the article. Great work! Ddev22 (talk) 20:45, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

References

Clarifying and qualifying introductory paragraph

For the following reasons I propose the following changes to the introductory paragraph:

Reconstructive memory is a theory of memory recall, in which the act of remembering is influenced by various other cognitive processes including perception, imagination, semantic memory and beliefs, amongst others.

Change "theory" to "mechanism" as a more accurate descriptor of reconstructive memory, and cite the definition to the APA dictionary site.

Reconstructive memory is a mechanism of memory recall, in which the act of remembering is influenced by various cognitive processes including perception, imagination, semantic memory and beliefs, amongst others.

People view their memories as being a coherent and truthful account of episodic memory and believe that their perspective is free from error during recall.

Make more concise and make the statement less absolute.

People often view their memories as being an error-free, coherent, and truthful account of episodic memory.

However the reconstructive process of memory recall is subject to distortion by other intervening cognitive functions such as individual perceptions, social influences, and world knowledge, all of which can lead to errors during reconstruction.

Shifts focus away from specifically error sources, and instead on the process with errors as a potential and frequent side-effect.

Recall is not perfect, and is dependent on many cognitive processes such as individual perceptions, social influences, and world knowledge. All of these processes have the potential to distort or modify the recalled memory.

The image is also recommended to be changed to align more directly with the description

The areas most actively involved in episodic encoding and retrieval are the medial temporal lobe (hippocampus) and the prefrontal lobe

Ask.krier (talk) 22:05, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

References

Retrieval Cues/Priming Disambiguation

This proposed edit is to clarify the retrieval cues section, specifically with regard to it's two sub-categories.

Priming does very little to interfere with retrieval cues, and in the example study given, it appears that the effect stems from a change in schema used and not the retrieval cues themselves.

The proposed edit is to make priming its own category (even with Retrieval cues, to clarify the reference to retrieval cues in the priming paragraph, and to adapt the last sentence of Retrieval cues to align more specifically with it's sub-category "Cue-dependent forgetting"

The adjusted text appears as follows:

Retrieval cues

After information is encoded and stored in our memory, specific cues are often needed to retrieve these memories. These are known as retrieval cues and they play a major role in reconstructive memory. The use of retrieval cues can both promote the accuracy of reconstructive memory as well as detract from it. The most common aspect of retrieval cues associated with reconstructive memory is the process that involve recollection. This process uses logical structures, partial memories, narratives or clues in order to retrieve the desired memory. However, the process of recollection cannot occur in the case of Cue-dependent forgetting.

Cue-dependent forgetting

Cue-dependent forgetting (also known as retrieval failure) occurs when memories are not obtainable because the appropriate cues are absent. This associated with a relatively common occurrence known as the tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon, originally developed by the psychologist William James. TOT phenomenon refers to when an individual knows particular information, and they are aware that they know this information, yet can not produce it even though they may know certain aspects about the information. For example, during an exam a student is asked who theorized the concept of psychosexual development, the student may be able to recall the details about the actual theory but they are unable to retrieve the memory associated with who originally introduced the theory.

Priming

Priming (psychology) refers to increasing sensitivity to certain stimuli by exposing an individual to a prior experience. Priming is believed to occur outside of conscious awareness, which makes it different from memory that relies on the direct retrieval of information. Priming can influence reconstructive memory because it can interfere with which schema are used in retrieval. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus presented many papers concerning the effects of proactive interference on the recall of eyewitness events. Interference involving priming was established in her classic study with John Palmer in 1974. Loftus and Palmer recruited 150 participants and showed each of them a film of a traffic accident. After, they had the participants fill out a questionnaire concerning the video's details. The participants were split into three groups:

• Group A contained 50 participants that were asked "About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
• Group B contained 50 participants that were asked "About how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other?"
• Group C contained 50 participants and were not asked this question because they were meant to represent a control group

A week later, all of the participants were asked whether of not there had been any broken glass in the video. A statistically significant number of participants in group B answered that they remembered seeing broken glass in the video (p < -.05). However, there was not any broken glass in the video. The difference between this group and the others was that they were primed with the word “smashed” in the questionnaire, one week prior to answering the question. By changing one word in the questionnaire, their memories were re-encoded with new details.

Ask.krier (talk) 22:31, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

References

Elaborating anxiety and stress

I would propose an addition to the Anxiety and stress section, motivated primarily by the shortcomings of the phrase, "Therefore, depending on the situation, stress can either cause a lapse in memory or it may cause a memory to become more apparent." This section takes a very noncommittal stance while giving a weak acknowledgement of either scientific argument. I propose the following changes that take into account both scientific explanations and the current consensus:

Anxiety is a state of distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear and it is a consistently associated with witnessing crimes. In a study done by Yuille and Cutshall (1986), they discovered that witnesses of real life violent crimes were able to remember the event quite vividly even five months after it originally occurred. In fact, witnesses to violent or traumatic crimes often self-report the memory as being particularly vivid. For this reason, eyewitness memory is often listed as an example of flashbulb memory.

However, in a study by Clifford and Scott (1978), participants were shown either a film of a violent crime or a film of a non-violent crime. The participants who viewed the stressful film had difficulty remembering details about the event compared to the participants that watched the non-violent film. In a study by Brigham et al. (2010), subjects who experienced an electrical shock were less accurate in facial recognition tests, suggesting that some details were not well remembered under stressful situations. In fact, in the case of the phenomena known as weapon focus, eyewitnesses to stressful crimes involving weapons may perform worse during suspect identification.

Further studies on flashbulb memories seem to indicate that witnesses may recall vivid sensory content unrelated to the actual event but which enhance its perceived vividness. Due to this vividness, eyewitnesses may place higher confidence in their reconstructed memories.

References

Peer Feedback

I believe that your additions to the Schema section of the article are very necessary to strengthening this site. Schema is intertwined so tightly with the concept of reconstructive memory that it is important for this section to be strong. Although this is a good start, I think more edits should be made to this schema section in order to further convey the connection between these two ideas. Instead of just saying that they are essential to reconstructive memory, it might be effective to explain a bit deeper on why this is the case. In addition, I think including information on the shared similarities between people about schemas and what that implies about reconstructive memory as a group could be an effective section as well.

GMSmith30 (talk) 20:50, 24 April 2020 (UTC)