It may feel as if our memories are simple records of past events, but all memories are, in fact, reconstructions of what occurred. Like any thoughts, they are influenced by our habits of mind, prejudices, and preconceptions about the way the world is.
There are a number of different ways in which people’s minds think with their memories – whether they are aware of it or not. Think about the last conversation you had. It is unlikely that you can remember exactly what was said word for word; you probably remember just the gist and a few phrases. Your memory preferentially stores the things that seem important at the time, leaving gaps in your recollections. Further gaps appear as time elapses, but when you make a conscious effort to remember the conversation. You tend not to notice them – it feels as if you have a full account. We also tend to infer extra details or draw assumptions from scant information when we cannot make sense of a story or situation; later, we may find it difficult to extract the ‘ real’ elements from the added extras. Similarly, our perception of ourselves often leads us to construct or selectively preserve those memories that seem to show us in a favorable light.
Memory is not passive: the brain actively constructs and shapes how we remember things according to our understanding of the world. Researchers refer to this as ‘top-down’ processing, by which previously stored knowledge reaches down to play a role in current thinking. This contrasts with bottom’ processing, in which new sensory information enters the mind and is acted upon. Most long-term memories are heavily influenced by top-down processing, both while they are being laid down and during recall.
Memory ‘schemas‘
Another major factor in the construction and retrieval of memories is our use of ‘schemas’ – a term psychologists use to describe how we organize knowledge drawn from previous experience. For example, most of us have a schema about restaurants: when we go into a restaurant, we expect to be seated at a table, look at a menu, and order food, which is cooked by chefs in the kitchen and brought to our table by a waiter. Schemas help to guide our actions in new situations. If you go to an unfamiliar restaurant, your restaurant schema will tell you what to expect and how to behave.
Guesses and distortions
Schemas are also useful for filling in gaps in memories. Just as your schemas help to direct your actions in new situations, they also allow you to make educated guesses about things that you have not remembered fully. These organized ‘ packets’ of knowledge are so enmeshed in our general thinking we are largely unaware of them, and this can sometimes lead to distortions. Lm Jgine that you visit a friend in the hospital. When you later recall the event, you will unconsciously use your hospital schema to fill in missing elements in your memories. This could lead you to ‘ remember’ things that are plausible but weren’t, in fact, there – a bunch of grapes on the bedside table, perhaps, or monitors by the bed – because these correspond with your schema of a hospital.
Schemas that distort our memories in this way can help to explain why we develop stereotypes of people; they also play a part in maintaining our prejudices. When a negative schema dominates a person’s view of a particular group in society, it may come into play in each contact with Members of that group, casting neutral exchanges and occurrences into an unfavorable light. These constructed negative experiences then serve to strengthen the initial prejudice.
Eating habits
Past experience helps us to construct a set of expectations for different situations. Each time we go to a restaurant, for example, we know what to expect and what to do.
