Memory as an Active Process » Effort After Meaning Concept

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

The concept of Effort After Meaning (EAM) and how it relates to memory
Bartlett's War of the Ghosts study and its significance
How schemas influence our memory processes
The four key processes of EAM: omission, transformation, rationalisation and conventionalisation
Real-world applications and examples of EAM
Evaluation of the EAM concept and its limitations

Introduction to Effort After Meaning

When we remember something, we don't just play back an exact recording like a video. Our brains actively try to make sense of information, filling in gaps and sometimes changing details to fit what we already know. This process is called Effort After Meaning (EAM).

Key Definitions:

Effort After Meaning: The process by which people try to make unfamiliar information meaningful by interpreting it according to their existing knowledge and expectations.
Schema: A mental framework or structure that organises knowledge and helps us understand new information based on previous experiences.
Reconstructive Memory: The idea that memory is not a perfect reproduction but an active process of rebuilding memories using existing knowledge.

💡 Origins of EAM

Sir Frederic Bartlett introduced the concept of Effort After Meaning in the 1930s. He challenged the idea that memory works like a filing cabinet where information is stored exactly as it was received. Instead, he proposed that memory is reconstructive and influenced by our cultural background, experiences and expectations.

📖 Why EAM Matters

Understanding EAM helps explain why eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, why people from different cultures might remember the same event differently and why our memories change over time. It shows that memory is an active, creative process rather than a passive recording system.

Bartlett's War of the Ghosts Study

Bartlett's most famous study demonstrating Effort After Meaning involved a Native American folktale called "The War of the Ghosts." This story contained unfamiliar cultural elements that would be strange to his British participants.

The War of the Ghosts Study (1932)

Method: Bartlett asked participants to read an unfamiliar Native American folktale and then recall it repeatedly over various time intervals (from 15 minutes to several years).

The story: The tale involved supernatural elements like ghosts fighting in a war and a young man who died after a black object fell out of his mouth.

Findings: As participants recalled the story over time, they:

Shortened the story, omitting unfamiliar details
Changed elements to make them more familiar (e.g., "canoes" became "boats")
Rationalised supernatural elements to fit with their understanding of the world
Added explanations that weren't in the original story

Conclusion: People don't simply reproduce memories; they reconstruct them based on their existing schemas and cultural expectations.

The Four Processes of Effort After Meaning

Bartlett identified four main processes that occur when we try to make meaning out of unfamiliar information:

✂ Omission

Leaving out details that seem irrelevant or don't fit with our existing knowledge. In Bartlett's study, participants often left out culturally unfamiliar elements or details they couldn't make sense of.

Example: Forgetting the specific names of characters in the story or supernatural elements that seemed strange.

🔁 Transformation

Changing unfamiliar elements into more familiar ones to make the information easier to understand and remember.

Example: Changing "hunting seals" to "fishing" or "canoes" to "boats" - concepts more familiar to British participants.

🧠 Rationalisation

Adding explanations or logical connections that weren't in the original information to make it more coherent and sensible.

Example: Creating reasons for why characters acted in certain ways or explaining supernatural events in rational terms.

📄 Conventionalisation

Adapting information to fit with cultural norms and expectations. This involves reshaping memories to align with what seems "normal" based on one's cultural background.

Example: Participants reinterpreted the Native American story using Western narrative structures and cultural references, making it more like a conventional Western tale.

The Role of Schemas in EAM

Schemas are mental frameworks that organise our knowledge about the world. They're like templates that help us process and understand new information based on our previous experiences.

📝 How Schemas Work

When we encounter new information, we try to fit it into our existing schemas. If the information doesn't fit neatly, we might:

Adapt our schema to accommodate the new information (accommodation)
Change the information to fit our schema (assimilation)
Ignore information that doesn't fit at all

This explains why people from different cultures or backgrounds might remember the same event differently - they're using different schemas to interpret and reconstruct the memory.

🎯 Schema Examples

We have schemas for all sorts of things:

Restaurant schema: Expectations about how restaurants work (being seated, ordering, paying)
School schema: Knowledge about classroom behaviour, timetables, etc.
Cultural schemas: Expectations based on our cultural background

These schemas help us navigate the world but can also lead to memory distortions when we encounter information that doesn't fit our expectations.

Real-World Applications of EAM

Case Study: Eyewitness Testimony

Effort After Meaning helps explain why eyewitness testimony can be unreliable. Witnesses often:

Fill in gaps in their memory with what "must have" happened
Unconsciously incorporate details they heard after the event
Interpret ambiguous actions based on stereotypes or expectations
Become more confident in their reconstructed memories over time

This has serious implications for the criminal justice system, where eyewitness accounts can significantly influence verdicts.

Other real-world applications of EAM include:

Education: Teachers can use students' existing schemas to help them understand new concepts by relating unfamiliar information to what they already know.
Marketing: Advertisers can design messages that fit with consumers' existing schemas to make information more memorable.
Cross-cultural communication: Understanding that people from different cultures interpret information through different schemas can help prevent misunderstandings.

Evaluating Effort After Meaning

👍 Strengths

Experimental support: Many studies have replicated Bartlett's findings, showing that memory is indeed reconstructive.
Real-world relevance: EAM helps explain everyday memory phenomena and has practical applications.
Cultural insights: The concept acknowledges the important role of cultural background in how we process and remember information.

👎 Limitations

Methodological issues: Bartlett's original study lacked standardisation and precise controls.
Individual differences: The theory doesn't fully account for why some people are better at accurate recall than others.
Oversimplification: Memory involves many processes beyond EAM, including both reconstructive and reproductive elements.

Summary: Key Points About Effort After Meaning

Memory is an active, reconstructive process, not a perfect reproduction of events.
We try to make unfamiliar information meaningful by interpreting it according to our existing knowledge (schemas).
The four key processes in EAM are omission, transformation, rationalisation and conventionalisation.
Our cultural background and previous experiences significantly influence how we remember information.
Understanding EAM has important applications in fields like education, law and cross-cultural communication.
While EAM explains many aspects of memory, it's part of a complex system that includes both reconstructive and reproductive elements.

Quick Revision Tip 💡

Remember the four processes of EAM with the acronym "OTRC":

Omission - leaving out unfamiliar details
Transformation - changing unfamiliar to familiar
Rationalisation - adding explanations
Conventionalisation - adapting to cultural norms

🧠 Test Your Knowledge!