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Key study: Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts
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Bartlett tested his reconstructive memory theory by asking British people to remember a story from a very different culture.
Aim and procedure
Aim: to investigate how memory of a story is affected by schemas and culture, and how it changes over time.
Sample: 20 British participants (7 women, 13 men).
Procedure: participants read a Native American folk tale, The War of the Ghosts, twice. It contained unfamiliar ideas, such as ghosts and canoes.
They wrote down what they remembered about 15 minutes later, and again at later intervals, from hours to, for some, years later. This is called repeated reproduction.
Sample: 20 British participants (7 women, 13 men).
Procedure: participants read a Native American folk tale, The War of the Ghosts, twice. It contained unfamiliar ideas, such as ghosts and canoes.
They wrote down what they remembered about 15 minutes later, and again at later intervals, from hours to, for some, years later. This is called repeated reproduction.
Results and conclusion
Results: the story became shorter and more like a typical British story.
Omissions: unfamiliar details, such as the ghosts, were often left out. Some participants left out the title.
Transformations: for example 'canoes' became 'boats', and names changed.
Rationalisations: details were added to explain strange events.
Conclusion: memory is reconstructive: we change memories to fit our schemas and culture. Bartlett concluded that accurate recall is the exception rather than the rule.
Omissions: unfamiliar details, such as the ghosts, were often left out. Some participants left out the title.
Transformations: for example 'canoes' became 'boats', and names changed.
Rationalisations: details were added to explain strange events.
Conclusion: memory is reconstructive: we change memories to fit our schemas and culture. Bartlett concluded that accurate recall is the exception rather than the rule.
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths: it used a story, which is more like real-life memory than lists of words. It provided rich qualitative data about how memories change.
Weaknesses: it was poorly controlled: participants were not given standardised instructions and recalled in different settings and at different intervals. They were not told to be accurate, so some changes may have been guesses. The sample was small and all British. Later replications found fewer errors when people were asked to be accurate.
Weaknesses: it was poorly controlled: participants were not given standardised instructions and recalled in different settings and at different intervals. They were not told to be accurate, so some changes may have been guesses. The sample was small and all British. Later replications found fewer errors when people were asked to be accurate.
A participant recalls 'they went fishing in a boat' instead of 'they went to hunt seals in a canoe'. What type of change is this?
- Unfamiliar details have been replaced with familiar ones.
- This is called transformation.
Answer: Transformation: unfamiliar details changed to fit the participant's cultural schemas.
Bartlett asked 20 British people to recall the War of the Ghosts repeatedly. The story became shorter and more British, with omissions, transformations and rationalisations. He concluded memory is reconstructive. The study lacked control and standardised instructions.
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