Sam and Layla both witnessed a minor collision between a bicycle and a pedestrian. When interviewed by security, Sam was convinced the cyclist was wearing a traditional yellow high-visibility vest and a helmet, whereas Layla was positive the cyclist was wearing a dark leather jacket and no helmet. They also gave conflicting accounts of other details of the incident.
Explain one strength and one weakness of using Bartlett's (1932) theory of reconstructive memory to explain why Sam and Layla had different recollections of the incident.
177 exam-style questions on Edexcel A Level Psychology Content, covering Working memory model, Multi-store model of memory, Episodic and semantic long-term memory, Reconstructive memory and schema theory, Individual differences in memory, and Developmental psychology in memory. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.