Repression- Freud

Freud came up with the idea that we forcibly forget facts that provoke anxiety

or unhappiness, therefore protecting ourselves against negative emotions. He believed that repressed memories stayed active in the mind but an individual is not

aware of them, and they can trigger symptoms. Repression is normally

acquired in childhood with bad experiences and relationships with

parents. At its most dramatic it is the blanking out of all traumatic memories.

For example people who experienced sexual abuse at a young age forget

experience through adolescence and start to remember at the beginning of

adulthood. (1894)

Strengths Weaknesses

Evidence from Koehler (2002) that words are stressful to participants are poorly recalled.

Hadley and MacKay (2007) showed that taboo words expected to be repressed were actually better recalled.

Diary studies from Walker (1997) show that happy and pleasant memories are recalled better.

Berntsen (2002) recalled shocking memories better than emotionally neutral ones.

Cue-Dependency- TulvingTulving suggested cues are extra pieces of information that help to locate an item in

LTM. The cues must be encoded at he same time as memory. Context cues are the

environment that can trigger memory: smell, sight, taste. State cues are internal triggers

that may be cognitive, physiological or emotional. (1974)

Studies

Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Proved that being in a different context from learning to recall affects remembering in a negative way.

Baker et al. (2004)

Showed that chewing gum when learning increased recall when also chewing gum.

Jarebek and Standing (1992)

Showed that students in an exam imagining their class room can improve recall in the exam room.

Criticisms of the Cue-Dependency theory is that context and state may not be different. It

may be that particular contexts evoke corresponding states, so all affects are state

dependant. It doesn't explain why emotionally charged memories remain vivid without the presence of context cues. It only

really explains forgetting from long-term memory, suggesting it is not present in STM.

Reconstructive - BartlettBartlett maintained memory wasn’t like a

tape recorder and the idea is that memory isn't perfectly formed, encoded and

retrieved. Past experiences for individuals would affect memories for events. Input

would be perception of an event, processing would be interpretation and perception.

Interpretation includes previous experience and schemata. Schemata are idea sand

concepts and scripts about the world, which tell you how to behave in certain situations . Memory of an event includes traces at the

time, previous experience, retrieving knowledge that has been altered to fit with

knowledge person has. (1932)

Bartlett thought of the idea of reconstructive memory in a game of Chinese Whispers, where a story or phrase is passed around and by the end the story is different from the original story. He

used an Native American folk story called ‘War of Ghosts’ which was unfamiliar to participants and

wasn’t from heir culture, so didn't fit in with existing schemata. When he asked them to recall

the story it became shorter going from 330 to 180 words. Participants altered the story by filling in

their own memories to make it make sense. They therefore reconstructed their memory.

Strengths Weaknesses

Evidence from Loftus about Eye Witness testimony.

Demand characteristics are used.

It can be tested by experimental method as the IV can be operationalised.

Doesn't explain how or why, just explains that it happens