Reconstructive Memory and the Multi-Store Model
Is memory a tidy filing cabinet or a story we rebuild? Trace information through the multi-store model, then see how Bartlett showed memory is reconstructed.
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More than a recording 🧠
It is tempting to imagine memory as a perfect video recording. Psychologists have found it is far stranger than that. This module traces two big ideas: the **multi-store model**, which sees memory as a set of stores, and **reconstructive memory**, which sees memory as something we actively **rebuild**.
Three jobs of memory 🔁
To remember anything, the brain does three jobs: - **Encoding**: changing input into a form memory can hold (visual, acoustic or semantic). - **Storage**: holding the information over time. - **Retrieval**: getting the information back out when it is needed.
Match each term to its meaning
- Input
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
- Information arriving from the senses
- Turning input into a form memory can store
- Holding information over time
- Getting information back out when needed
The multi-store model 🗄️
The **multi-store model** (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968) describes memory as **three separate stores** that information flows through: - The **sensory register**. - **Short-term memory** (STM). - **Long-term memory** (LTM).
How information flows
An interactive activity.
Match each store to its capacity and duration
- Sensory register
- Short-term memory
- Long-term memory
- Very brief; holds raw sense information
- Around 7 items for up to 30 seconds
- Unlimited capacity, potentially lifelong
Into the STM
In the multi-store model, what moves information from the sensory register into short-term memory?
- Attention
- Rehearsal
- Retrieval
- Forgetting
Into the LTM
What keeps information in short-term memory and helps move it into long-term memory?
- Rehearsal
- Attention
- Decay
- Encoding
Memory as reconstruction 📦
Not everyone pictures memory as tidy stores. **Bartlett** (1932) argued memory is **reconstructive**: instead of replaying a perfect recording, we actively **rebuild** memories. We use **schemas**, packages of prior knowledge and expectation, to fill the gaps, and this can **distort** what we recall.
The key word
What is a schema?
- A package of prior knowledge and expectations
- A perfect recording of an event
- A physical part of the brain
- A type of forgetting
War of the Ghosts 📖
In Bartlett's famous **"War of the Ghosts"** study, participants read an unfamiliar folk tale and recalled it repeatedly. They unconsciously **changed** it to fit their own cultural schemas: dropping unfamiliar details, reordering events, and making it shorter and more conventional. Memory had been rebuilt, not copied.
Reconstructive memory
Select the TWO ideas from reconstructive memory theory.
- Memory is actively rebuilt, not simply replayed
- Schemas can distort what we recall
- Memory is a perfect video recording
- Recall never changes over time
Memory frame
To remember, the brain uses encoding, _____ and retrieval. The multi-store model of Atkinson and Shiffrin has a sensory register, short-term and _____ memory, with attention and rehearsal moving information along. Bartlett argued memory is _____, using _____ that can distort recall.
Two models
How do the multi-store model and reconstructive memory differ?
- One describes stores that information flows through; the other describes how memory is rebuilt and distorted
- Both say memory is a perfect recording
- Both describe exactly the same three stores
- Neither tries to explain how memory works