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:
Memory process terms
- 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
Put the multi-store model in the order information flows through it.
- The sensory register receives input from the senses
- Attention passes information to short-term memory
- Rehearsal passes information to long-term memory
- Retrieval brings it back when it is needed
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
Label the model
This is the multi-store model with its labels removed. Put each store in its place, and name the two processes that move information along the arrows.
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, using schemas to fill the gaps. The two accounts disagree about what recall actually is.
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.
Explain a witness
A witness describes a shop robbery a week after seeing it. Use reconstructive memory to account for what they say.
- The witness saw an unfamiliar tool in the robber's hand. A week later they cannot describe it. What does Bartlett's work predict?
- Their account is shorter than their first statement, and the events run in a tidier order. Why?
- They confidently describe a till and a queue, neither of which was there. What is the best explanation?
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