Human Memory - A Constructivist View (Relié)

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.