Redintegration

Redintegration refers to the restoration of the whole of something from a part of it. The everyday phenomenon is that a small part of a memory can remind a person of the entire memory, for example, “recalling an entire song when a few notes are played.” In cognitive psychology the word is used in reference to phenomena in the field of memory, where it is defined as "the use of long-term knowledge to facilitate recall." The process is hypothesised to be working as "pattern completion", where previous knowledge is used to facilitate the completion of the partially degraded memory trace.

Redintegration refers to the restoration of the whole of something from a part of it. The everyday phenomenon is that a small part of a memory can remind a person of the entire memory, for example, “recalling an entire song when a few notes are played.” In cognitive psychology the word is used in reference to phenomena in the field of memory, where it is defined as "the use of long-term knowledge to facilitate recall." The process is hypothesised to be working as "pattern completion", where previous knowledge is used to facilitate the completion of the partially degraded memory trace. ==Proust== The great literary example of redintegration is Marcel Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past. The conceit is that the entire seven-volume novel consists of the memories triggered by the taste of a madeleine soaked in lime tea. "I had recognized the taste of the crumb of madeleine soaked in her concoction of lime-flowers which my aunt used to give to me. Immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like the scenery of a theatre to attach itself to the little pavilion, opening on to the garden, which had been built out behind it for my parents..." ==Associationists== The Associationist School of philosophical psychologists sought to explain redintegration (among other memory-related phenomena) and used it as evidence supporting their theories. ==Contemporary memory research== In the study of item recall in working memory, memories that have partially decayed can be recalled in their entirety. It is hypothesized that this is accomplished by a redintegration process, which allows the entire memory to be reconstructed from the temporary memory trace by using the subject's previous knowledge. The process seems to work because of the redundancy of language. The effects of long-term knowledge on memory’s trace reconstruction have been shown for both visual and auditory presentation and recall. The mechanism of redintegration is still not fully understood and is being actively researched. Thus, the probability of correct recall ( P_C ) is: P_C = I + R*(1-I) Where: I is the probability of trace being intact, and R is the probability of correct redintegration. If the trace is neither intact nor successfully completely redintegrated, person fails to accurately recall the memory. Schweickert (1993) proposed that the redintegration of a memory trace happens through two independent processes. In the lexical process, the memory trace is attempted to be converted into a word. In the phonemic process, the memory trace is attempted to be converted into a string of phonemes. Consequently, the probability of correct redintegration ( R ), becomes a function of L (lexical process) and/or P (phonemic process). These processes are autonomous, and their effect on R depends on whether they take place sequentially or non-sequentially. Schweickert’s explanation of trace redintegration is analogous to the processes hypothesized to be responsible for repairs of errors in speech. Though Schweickert indicates that the process of trace redintegration may be facilitated by the context of the situation in which recall takes place (e.g. syntax, semantics), his model does not provide details on the potential influences of such factors. Schweickert's model was extended by Gathercole and colleagues (1999), who added a concept of degraded trace. Their model of the multinomial processing tree included an additional node, which represents a decayed memory. Such degraded trace can no longer undergo redintegration, and the outcome of recall is incorrect. Thus, the probability of correct recall ( P_C ) changes to: P_C = I + R*(1-I-T) Where: I is the probability of trace being intact, R is the probability of correct redintegration, and T is the probability of trace being entirely lost. ==See also== Stream of consciousness (psychology) ==References== ==External links==

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