At a community fundraiser, visitors wrote offers for donated items on sheets. The person making the highest written offer received each item. No one called out bids and no raffle took place.
Later, Aisha and Ben give these accounts:
| Person | Previous experience | Account of the fundraiser |
|---|---|---|
| Aisha | She has attended many art auctions where an auctioneer called out bids. | She confidently remembers an auctioneer calling out bids for each item. |
| Ben | He has helped at many school fundraising events where raffle tickets were sold. | He confidently remembers a winning raffle ticket being drawn for each item. |
Neither Aisha nor Ben intends to deceive anyone.
Using the theory of reconstructive memory, explain why Aisha's and Ben's accounts of the same fundraiser are different. In your answer, refer to schemas and confabulation. Explain how repeated retelling is likely to affect their accounts.
84 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 5.2 Theories/Explanations, covering 5.2.1 Multi-store Model structure, 5.2.2 Differences between memory stores; criticisms, 5.2.3 Multi-store Model research study: Wilson et al. (2008), 5.2.4 Reconstructive memory: schemas, experience and expectation, 5.2.5 Reconstructive memory: confabulation and leading questions; criticisms, and 5.2.6 Reconstructive Memory research study: Braun, Ellis and Loftus (2002). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.