Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghost

Question 1

What is serial reproduction?

Answer 1

A technique where participants retell something to another participant to form a chain; this is how folk stories are passed down through cultures

Question 2

What is repeated reproduction?

Answer 2

A technique where participants are asked to recall something again and again

Question 3

What is Reliable?

Answer 3

When the outcomes of a study are consistent ( same way)

Question 4

What is a standardised procedure

Answer 4

Where the procedure of a study is the same across all conditions

Question 5

What was the aim of the study?

Answer 5

To test the nature of reconstructive memory using an unfamiliar story, looking at whether personal schemas influence what is remembered.

Question 6

What was the study procedure?

Answer 6

Participants were asked to read ‘ The War of ghosts’ twice, a native American folk story which will be unfamiliar to the participants.and then were later asked to recall it. Both serial reproduction and repeated reproduction were used. He used qualitative analysis to look for and interpret changes to the stories that were recalled.

Question 7

What was the study finding?

Answer 7

Barlett found the participants tried to make sense of the story and this resulted in omissions, transformation, familiarisation and rationalisation.

Question 8

What was the study conclusion?

Answer 8

Bartlet interpreted the results as evidence for the active and constructive nature of memory: how participants remembered the story was influenced by their schemas.

Question 9

What were the strengths of the study?

Answer 9

1) He replicated his procedure using various stories and pictures and found participants had the same behaviour to omit and transform the material when remembering- this suggests that his findings are reliable.
2) The use of a story as recall material can be considered to have ecological validity.

Question 10

What was the weakness of the study?

Answer 10

1) He did not always get participants to recall the story at the same time and allowed them to read in their own reading pace
2) Lack of external validity due to the nature of the task

Question 11

How do schemas influence memory?

Answer 11

Omissions, familiarisation, transformation and rationalisation