What makes memory constructive? A study in the serial reproduction of Bartlett’s experiments
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19003380 |
|---|---|
| Authors | B Wagoner (0000-0003-0731-4048, Aalborg University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 186-207 |
| Publication date | 2017-05-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture & Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1354-067X • E-ISSN: 1461-7056 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1354067x17695759 |
| OpenAlex | W2594623140 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 20 |
The claim that memory is constructive or reconstructive is no longer controversial in psychology. However, in the last decades it has generally been taken to mean that our memories are inaccurate or distorted. In the locus classicus of the constructive memory idea—Bartlett’s Remembering—we find a different meaning: Constructive is there understood as a future-oriented and adaptive characteristic of remembering, which can also lead to accuracy. His notion of constructiveness was even earlier elaborated in relation to group dynamics in his book Psychology and Primitive Culture. How did we get from one meaning of constructive to another? This question is explored through a serial reproduction analysis of experiments purporting to replicate Bartlett’s study. The focus is on the transformation of terminology used to describe qualitative changes introduced by subjects into reproductions. In this history a diversity of terms, coming from different intellectual sources, is gradually subsumed under the single term ‘distortion’. Thus, psychologists have reconstructed Bartlett’s work based on their own background, other influences and their own project for the discipline, illustrating the very constructive processes Bartlett theorized
Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Constructive · Epistemology · Linguistics · Reproduction · Sociology · Terminology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cultural Differences and Values · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity
Bartlett meets Schutz and Husserl
The serial reproduction of an urban myth
A remodeled cognitive vocabulary approach to assessing writing achievement in EFL education
Meaning Production in Transition
Repeated reproduction
Documenting a contested memory
The end into the beginning
Collective memory and social sciences in the post-truth era
Reconstructing the ‘Reconquista’
From Mind to Context, from Accuracy to Meaning. Exploring the Grammar of Remembering as a Socially Situated Act
Remembering the occupation of 'Araucanía
The History of Melanesian Society
An introduction to social psychology.
An Invitation to Cultural Psychology
Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory.
Psychology of Rumor or How the Flying Saucer Phenomenon Spread Throughout the Nation
Evolution in Art, as Illustrated by the Life Histories of Designs
Bartlett’s concept of schema in reconstruction
Documenting a contested memory
Looking at anthropology from a biological point of view
Misremembering Bartlett
Some Experiments Relating to Bartlett's Theory of Remembering
Learning and Retaining Verbal Material
Experiments on Culture Psychology
Bartlett's Psycho-anthropological Project
| Citations per year | 1.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |