Human Memory : A Constructivist View

While memory research has recently focused on brain images and neurological underpinnings of transmitters, Human Memory: A Constructivist View assesses how our individual identity affects what we remember, why and how. This book brings memory back to the constructivist questions of how all the experiences of an individual, up to the point of new memory input, help to determine what that person pays attention to, how that information is interpreted, and how all that ultimately affects what goes into memory and how it is stored. This also affects what can be recalled later and what kind of memory distortions are likely to occur. The authors describe constructionist theories of memory, what they predict, how this is borne out in research findings, presenting everyday life examples for better understanding of the material and interest. Intended for memory researchers and graduate level courses, this book is an excellent summary of human memory research from the constructivist perspective. * Defines constructivist theory in memory research * Assesses research findings relative to constructivist predictions * Identifies how personal experience dictates attention, interpretation, and storage * Integrates constructivist based findings with cognitive neuroscience Human Memory: A Constructivist View summarizes research findings relating to memory and examines them through a constructivist viewpoint, explaining how memory is altered by our cognitions and knowledge of the world. Throughout the book, the constructivist view is contrasted to empiricist and rationalist perspectives to examine models of memory search, serial learning, eyewitness memory change, post-traumatic stress disorder the emergence of abstract thinking in infants, and how schemas can affect memory. The authors examine, what this research tells us about the innate capacities within memory to record, interpret, and organize sensory experience; how stored memories interact and may become altered by that interaction; and the relationship memory may or may not have with reality. Throughout the book, examples of memory phenomena are provided to illustrate how memory succeeds and fails in, everyday situations and how constructivism can provide a means of understanding the complex and unobservable workings of the human memory system. Special Features: Summarizes the vast findings in memory research, Shows how and why an event is remembered differently by different people, Examines the influence of other memories, time, and place on new memories, Contrasts constructivist, empiricist, and rationalist views of memory, Includes everyday examples of memory in action to illustrate concepts Book jacket

While memory research has recently focused on brain images and neurological underpinnings of transmitters, Human Memory: A Constructivist View assesses how our individual identity affects what we remember, why and how. This book brings memory back to the constructivist questions of how all the experiences of an individual, up to the point of new memory input, help to determine what that person pays attention to, how that information is interpreted, and how all that ultimately affects what goes into memory and how it is stored. This also affects what can be recalled later and what kind of memory distortions are likely to occur.

The authors describe constructionist theories of memory, what they predict, how this is borne out in research findings, presenting everyday life examples for better understanding of the material and interest. Intended for memory researchers and graduate level courses, this book is an excellent summary of human memory research from the constructivist perspective.

• Defines constructivist theory in memory research
• Assesses research findings relative to constructivist predictions
• Identifies how personal experience dictates attention, interpretation, and storage
• Integrates constructivist based findings with cognitive neuroscience

Content: Human Memory A Constructivist View , Page i Human Memory A Constructivist View , Page iii Copyright , Page iv Dedications , Page v Preface , Pages ix-xii Acknowledgment , Page xiii Introduction , Pages xv-xxiii Chapter 1 - Links and Cues , Pages 1-19 Chapter 2 - Spreading Activation , Pages 21-40 Chapter 3 - Processing Structures , Pages 41-63 Chapter 4 - Constructivism , Pages 65-84 Chapter 5 - A Personal Memory , Pages 85-110 Chapter 6 - Piaget’s Model , Pages 111-135 Chapter 7 - Altered Memories , Pages 137-158 Chapter 8 - Dissociative Memory, Variables that Influence Reconstruction, and Propositional Coding , Pages 159-175 Chapter 9 - Memory and Emotion , Pages 177-196 Chapter 10 - Memory and Schemas , Pages 197-219 Appendix A - Types of Links in Memory , Pages 221-222 Appendix B - Interference and Forgetting , Pages 223-228 References , Pages 229-253 Index , Pages 255-261 "Memory research has been so enamored of recent findings involving brain images and neurological underpinnings of transmitters, that it has seemingly moved away from understanding how who we are as individuals affects what we remember, why and how. Mary Howe brings memory back to the constructivist questions of how all the experiences of an individual up to the point of new memory input, help to determine what that person pays attention to, how that information is interpreted, and how all that ultimately affects what goes into memory and how it is stored. This also affects what can be recall"