Memory Studies- Bartlett's Experiment

Question 1

Background of the study

Answer 1

In his book, Bartlett wrote about his experiments that he conducted using pictures and folk stories. One of the stories was called “The war of the Ghosts” and was chosen as it would have been unfamiliar to his participants. He hoped that the unfamiliarity of the story would shed light on the reconstructive nature of memory .

Question 2

Aim of the study

Answer 2

To test the nature of reconstructive memory using an unfamiliar story, looking at whether personal schemas influence what is remembered from the story or not

Question 3

Serial Reproduction

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Repeated Reproduction

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Procedure

Answer 5

Participants were asked to read the war of the ghosts twice and then were asked to recall it. Bartlett used both serial reproduction and repeated reproduction to test the recall of the story. For serial reproduction, one participant was asked to retell the story to another participant 15-30 minutes later and the second told the third and so on . For repeated reproduction, the same participant was asked to write out the story after 15 minutes. They were then asked to recall the story several minutes, hours, days, months and years later.

Question 6

Results

Answer 6

For both types of recall, participants tried to make sense of the odd story by giving it meaning. This resulted in addition or changes such as making connections or giving reasons for events. This is known as rationalisation. They also tended to leave out unfamiliar or unpleasant parts of the story, particularly the unfamiliar place names.

Question 7

Conclusion

Answer 7

Bartlett interpreted the results as evidence for the active or constructive nature of memory. Participants did not recall the story fully or accurately. Instead they omitted details that did not fit with their schema.

Question 8

Strengths of the study

Answer 8

It had ecological validity as remembering a story is a naturalistic test compared to things like nonsense trigrams.
It is also reliable because replicated his procedure using various stories and pictures

Question 9

Weaknesses of the study

Answer 9

The data was gathered using qualitative analysis which can be seen as unscientific
Also there was no standardised procedure