Memory: Shadows, Reflections, or Reconstructions?
As early as 1932 Sir Frederic Bartlett showed that remembering is not just a question of making an accurate record of the information we receive, but involves fitting the new information into what is already there and creating a narrative that makes sense.
Bartlett argued that the process of retrieval involves reconstruction, which is influenced by the frameworks that people already have in their heads. So memory, just like perception, is both selective and interpretive. It involves construction as well as reconstruction.
We are able to recall the meaning of events far more accurately than their details, and the meaning we give to them influences the details we remember.
At particularly important or emotional moments, details tend to get better ‘fixed’ in our memories.
However, even then the details remembered by two people present at the same event may be strikingly different.
Even when we do remember details accurately, the details we remember are not fixed in our memories, but remain changeable.
If I witnessed an accident at a junction and am later questioned about details of what happened, such as whether the car stopped before or after the tree, I am likely to insert a tree into my memory even if there was no tree.
Once that tree has been inserted it seems to become part of the original memory, so that I can no longer tell the difference between my ‘real’ memory and what I remember remembering later.
网友评论