Cognitive Structure and Informant Accuracy

Cognitive Structure and Informant Accuracy

The problem of informant accuracy is examined in light of principles of memory organization from cognitive psychology. These principles turn out to be powerful, not only in explaining overall patterns of informant error, but in predicting details about the types of errors made. Predictions are made...

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Veröffentlicht in:American anthropologist 1987-06, Vol.89 (2), p.310-325
Hauptverfasser: Freeman, Linton C., Romney, A. Kimball, Freeman, Sue C.
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Accuracy
California
Cognition
Cognitive Development
Cognitive models
Cognitive psychology
Cultural anthropology
Datasets
Errors
Ethnology
Information processing
Memory
Memory recall
Methods and techniques
Research methods
Research Subjects
Social events
Social interaction
Social networking
Social structures
Sources and methods
U.S.A
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The problem of informant accuracy is examined in light of principles of memory organization from cognitive psychology. These principles turn out to be powerful, not only in explaining overall patterns of informant error, but in predicting details about the types of errors made. Predictions are made in terms both of different kinds of informants and different kinds of objects. All the predictions are strongly supported by the data. Finally, in the light of these results, two strategies are developed. The "best" informants, it seems, can be used to reveal long-range stable patterns of events, and the "worst" informants can be used to reveal the details of a particular event of special interest.
ISSN:0002-7294
1548-1433
DOI:10.1525/aa.1987.89.2.02a00020