Reconstructive memory: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:54, 12 October 2020

Revision as of 06:58, 13 December 2020

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In this manner, the various features of the experience must be joined together to form a coherent representation of the episode.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hemmer|first1=Pernille|last2=Steyvers|first2=Mark|date=2009|title=A Bayesian Account of Reconstructive Memory|journal=Topics in Cognitive Science|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=189–202|doi=10.1111/j.1756-8765.2008.01010.x|pmid=25164805|issn=1756-8765}}</ref> If this binding process fails, it can result in [[Memory error|memory errors]]. The complexity required for reconstructing some episodes is quite demanding and can result in incorrect or incomplete recall.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Torres-Trejo|first1=Frine|last2=Cansino|first2=Selene|date=2016-06-30|title=The Effects of the Amount of Information on Episodic Memory Binding|journal=Advances in Cognitive Psychology|volume=12|issue=2|pages=79–87|doi=10.5709/acp-0188-z|pmid=27512526|issn=1895-1171|doi-access=free}}</ref> This complexity leaves individuals susceptible to phenomena such as the [[misinformation effect]] across subsequent recollections.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kiat|first1=John E.|last2=Belli|first2=Robert F.|date=2017-05-01|title=An exploratory high-density EEG investigation of the misinformation effect: Attentional and recollective differences between true and false perceptual memories|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1074742717300606|journal=Neurobiology of Learning and Memory|language=en|volume=141|pages=199–208|doi=10.1016/j.nlm.2017.04.007|issn=1074-7427|pmid=28442391|s2cid=4421445}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Burgess | first1 = PW | last2 = Shallice | first2 = T | year = 1996 | title = Confabulation and the control of recollection | url = | journal = Memory | volume = 4 | issue = 4| pages = 359–411 | doi = 10.1080/096582196388906 | pmid = 8817460 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hemmer|first1=Pernille|last2=Steyvers|first2=Mark|date=2009|title=A Bayesian Account of Reconstructive Memory|journal=Topics in Cognitive Science|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=189–202|doi=10.1111/j.1756-8765.2008.01010.x|pmid=25164805|issn=1756-8765}}</ref>

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 the recall of aspects of episodic memory, the individual tends to supplement other aspects of knowledge that are unrelated to the actual episode 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.

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===Schema===

[[Schema (psychology)|Schema]] are generally defined as mental information networks that represent some aspect of collected world knowledge. Frederic Bartlett was one of the first psychologists to propose Schematic theory, suggesting that the individual's understanding of the world is influenced by elaborate neural networks that organize abstract information and concepts.<ref name=Bartlett>{{cite web|url=http://iscte.pt/~fgvs/Bartlett,%20Experiments.pdf|title="Frederick Bartlett", Some Experiments on the Reproduction of Folk-Stories, March 30, 1920|publisher=}}</ref> Schema are fairly consistent and become strongly internalized in the individual through [[socialization]], which in turn alters the recall of [[episodic memory]]. Schema is understood to be central to reconstruction, used to confabulate, and fill in gaps to provide a plausible narrative. Bartlett also showed that schema can be tied to cultural and social norms.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Bartlett|first1=Sir Frederic Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WG5ZcHGTrm4C&pg=PR9#v=onepage|title=Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology|last2=Bartlett|first2=Frederic C.|last3=Bartlett|first3=Frederic Charles|date=1995-06-30|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-48356-8|language=en}}</ref>

==== Jean Piaget's theory of schema ====

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==== Frederic Bartlett's experiments ====

[[Frederic Bartlett]] originally tested his idea of the reconstructive nature of recall by presenting a group of participants with foreign folk tales (his most famous being "War of the Ghosts"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dlvalenc/PSY307/LINKS/GHOSTWAR.HTM|title="War of the Ghosts", March 5, 2012, |publisher=}}</ref>) with which they had no previous experience. After presenting the story, he tested their ability to recall and summarize the stories at various points after the presentation to newer generations of participants. His findings showed that the participants could provide a simple summary but had difficulty recalling the story accurately, with the participants' own account generally being shorter and manipulated in such a way that aspects of the original story that were unfamiliar or conflicting to the participants' own schematic knowledge were removed or altered in a way to fit into more personally relevant versions.<ref name=Bartlett /> For instance, allusions made to magic and Native American mysticism that were in the original version were omitted as they failed to fit into the average Westerner schematic network. Besides, after several recounts of the story had been made by successive generations of participants, certain aspects of the recalled tale were embellished so they were more consistent with the participants' cultural and historical viewpoint compared to the original text (e.g. Emphasis placed on one of the characters desire to return to care for his dependent elderly mother). These findings lead Bartlett to conclude that recall is predominately a ''reconstructive'' rather than ''reproductive'' process.<ref name=":0" />

James J. Gibson built off of the work that Bartlett originally laid down, suggesting that the degree of change found in a reproduction of an episodic memory depends on how that memory is later perceived.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gibson | first1 = J.J. | year = 1929 | title = The Reproduction of Visually Perceived Forms | URL = http://wexler.free.fr/library/files/gibson%20(1929)%20the%20reproduction%20of%20visually%20perceived%20forms.pdf | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology | volume = 12 | issue = 1| pages = 1–39 | doi=10.1037/h0072470}}</ref> This concept was later tested by Carmichael, Hogan, and Walter (1932) who exposed a group of participants to a series of simple figures and provided different words to describe each images. For example, all participants were exposed to an image of two circles attached by a single line, where some of the participants were told it was a barbell and the rest were told it was a pair of reading glasses. The experiment revealed that when the participants were later tasked with replicating the images, they tended to add features to their own reproduction that more closely resembled the word they were [[Priming (psychology)|primed]] with.

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[[File:Hippocampus-mri.jpg|thumb|right|MRI indicating the hippocampus]]

Recent research using neuro-imaging technology including [[Positron emission tomography|PET]] and [[Functional magnetic resonance imaging|fMRI scanning]] has shown that there is an extensive amount of distributed brain activation during the process of episodic encoding and retrieval. Among the various regions, the two most active areas during the constructive processes are the [[medial temporal lobe]] (including the [[hippocampus]]) and the [[prefrontal cortex]].<ref name="schacter">{{cite journal | last1 = Schacter | first1 = DL | last2 = Norman | first2 = KA | last3 = Koutstaal | first3 = W | year = 1998 | title = The Cognitive Neuroscience of Constructive Memory | url = | journal = Annual Review of Psychology | volume = 49 | issue = | pages = 289–318 | doi=10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.289| pmid = 9496626 }}</ref> The Medial Temporal lobe is especially vital for encoding novel events in episodic networks, with the Hippocampus acting as one of the central locations that acts to both combine and later separate the various features of an event.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tulving | first1 = E | authorlink2author-link2 = Hans Markowitsch | last2 = Markowitsch | first2 = H.J. | last3 = Kapur | first3 = S | last4 = Habib | first4 = R | last5 = Houle | first5 = S. | year = 1994 | title = Novelty encoding networks in the human brain: positron emission tomography data | url = | journal = NeuroReport | volume = 5 | issue = 18| pages = 2525–28 | doi=10.1097/00001756-199412000-00030| pmid = 7696595 }}</ref><ref name="mcclelland">McClelland JL, McNaughton BL, O’Reilly RC. 1995. [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/57f1/16f3e6780424463cc8416ce755a72f873aa9.pdf Why There Are Complementary Learning Systems in the Hippocampus and Neocortex: Insights from the Successes and Failures of Connectionist Models of Learning and Memory]. Psychology Review 102:419–57</ref> Most popular research holds that the Hippocampus becomes less important in long term memory functioning after more extensive consolidation of the distinct features present at the time of episode encoding has occurred. In this way long term episodic functioning moves away from the CA3 region of the Hippocampal formation into the neocortex, effectively freeing up the CA3 area for more initial processing.<ref name="mcclelland" />

Studies have also consistently linked the activity of the Prefrontal Cortex, especially that which occurs in the right hemisphere, to the process of retrieval.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tulving | first1 = E | last2 = Kapur | first2 = S | last3 = Markowitsch | first3 = HJ | last4 = Craik | first4 = FIM | last5 = Habib | first5 = R | display-authors = et al | year = 1994 | title = Neuroanatomical Correlates of Retrieval in Episodic Memory: Auditory Sentence Recognition | url = | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA | volume = 91 | issue = 6| pages = 2012–15 | doi=10.1073/pnas.91.6.2012| pmid = 8134341 | pmc = 43299 }}</ref> The Prefrontal cortex appears to be utilized for executive functioning primarily for directing the focus of attention during retrieval processing, as well as for setting the appropriate criterion required to find the desired target memory.<ref name="schacter" />

==Applications==

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====Anxiety and stress====

Anxiety is a state of distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/anxiety|title=Anxiety - Define Anxiety at Dictionary.com|publisher=}}</ref> 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.<ref name="simplypsych"/> 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.<ref name="simplypsych" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Brigham|first1=John C.|last2=Maass|first2=Anne|last3=Martinez|first3=David|last4=Whittenberger|first4=Gary|date=1983-09-01|title=The Effect of Arousal on Facial Recognition|journal=Basic and Applied Social Psychology|volume=4|issue=3|pages=279–293|doi=10.1207/s15324834basp0403_6|issn=0197-3533}}</ref> In fact, in the case of the phenomena known as [[weapon focus]], eyewitnesses to stressful crimes involving weapons may perform worse during suspect identification.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fawcett|first1=Jonathan M.|last2=Peace|first2=Kristine A.|last3=Greve|first3=Andrea|date=2016-09-01|title=Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun: What Do We Know About the Weapon Focus Effect?|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368116300699|journal=Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition|language=en|volume=5|issue=3|pages=257–263|doi=10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.07.005|issn=2211-3681|doi-access=free}}</ref>

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====Cross-race effect====

Reconstructing the face of another race requires the use of schemas that may not be as developed and refined as those of the same race.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Pezdek | first1 = K. | last2 = Blandon-Gitlin | first2 = I. | last3 = Moore | first3 = C. | year = 2003 | title = Children's Face Recognition Memory: More Evidence for the Cross-Race Effect | url = http://infantlab.fiu.edu/Articles/Pedzke%20et%20al%202003.pdf | journal = Journal of Applied Psychology | volume = 88 | issue = 4| pages = 760–763 | doi=10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.760| citeseerx = 10.1.1.365.6517 | pmid = 12940414 }}</ref> The [[cross-race effect]] is the tendency that people have to distinguish among other of their race than of other races. Although the exact cause of the effect is unknown, two main theories are supported. The perceptual expertise hypothesis postulates that because most people are raised and are more likely to associate with others of the same race, they develop an expertise in identifying the faces of that race. The other main theory is the in-group advantage. It has been shown in the lab that people are better at discriminating the emotions of in-group members than those of out-groups.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Elfenbein | first1 = H. A. | last2 = Ambady | first2 = N. | year = 2003 | title = When familiarity breeds accuracy: Cultural exposure and facial emotion recognition | url = | journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 85 | issue = 2| pages = 276–290 | doi=10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.276| pmid = 12916570 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.200.1256 }}</ref>

====Leading questions====