Redefining Associative Memory, in Order to Account for the Imaginative Reconstruction of Accurate Memories

Abstract

The current experiment measured recognition of increasingly complete repicturings of four-piece ensembles of furniture: a lamp, a sofa, a chair, and a wall-hanging. As each of the four pieces was cumulatively added to its ensemble, subjects judged whether the pieces repictured thus far came from a previously studied ensemble of furniture or a new ensemble. It was found that knowing the order in which the four pieces would be added to the increasingly complete repicturings improved recognition confidence. It is argued that this outcome supports a reconstructive memory model, in which remembrances are reconstructed feature by feature, through a process of: a) sampling features from their innately organized locations; and b) retaining those features with appropriate and equivalent time-tags. Opposing models of reconstructive memory, which imply that the memory process is seldom accurate, and opposing models of associative memory, which imply that the component features of a studied object must be either stored together or connected together, are discussed.