Bartlett (1932)

Question 1

Schema

Answer 1

mental representations that are used to organize our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide
our behavior, to predict likely happenings, and to help us to make sense of current experiences.
Schemas are cognitive structures that are derived from prior experience and knowledge. They
simplify reality, setting up expectations about what is probable in relation to particular social and
textual contexts.

Question 2

Reconstructive Memory

Answer 2

Theory that when memories are accessed, they are not retrieved as a
single whole memory, but rather as a collection of independent memories put together.

Question 3

Aim

Answer 3

Investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge; If cultural
background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when the story was
recalled. Demonstrate that memory is reconstructive, and that people store and retrieve
Infromation according to expectations formed by cultural schemas.

Question 4

Procedure

Answer 4

Told participants a native American legend called The War of the Ghosts
o Participants were British: Story was filled with unknown words and concepts
- Two conditions: one group was asked to use repeated reproduction (they heard the story
and then told to reproduce it over a period of time) other group was told to use serial
reproduction (recall the story and repeat it to another person)

Question 5

Results

Answer 5

Participants in both conditions changed the story as they tried to remember it- distortion
- Three patterns of distortion: Assimilation (more consistent with cultural expectations),
Leveling (shorter with each retelling), and Sharpening (change order of story to make it
sound more familiar). They also added detail or emotion
- Remembering is not a passive but active process, information is changed to fit existing
schemas

Question 6

Evaluation

Answer 6

Despite the fact it was carried out in a lab, it has high ecological validity due to its
practical applications
- No standardized instructions
- No difference in performance of the two groups: the IV did not affect the DV
- When we consider culture as the IV, the study is a quasi-experiment (no independent
variable was manipulated)- no cause-and-effect relationship
- No control group/ Native Americans recalling story