The Psychology Book

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Memory studies

BEFORE

1890 William James makes a distinction between short-term (primary) memory and long-term (secondary) memory.

1932 Frederic Bartlett’s studies show that recollective memory is not simply a matter of retrieval; it is an active reconstruction of past events.

AFTER

1982 US psychologist Ulric Neisser argues that flashbulb memories do not use a special mechanism and can be inaccurate due to multiple “rehearsals” after the event.

1987 In Autobiographical Memory, American psychologist David Rubin suggests that we remember landmark events that define us as people.

In the late 1970s, Harvard University professor Roger Brown ...