Bartlett et al. (1932)

Researcher and year

Bartlett et al. (1932)

Aim

• understand schems and the constructive nature of remembering

• hypothesis: memory is a reconstructive process and that process is affected by the individual’s culture and expectations.

Sample

• British male and female undergraduate students in Bartlett’s university classes.

Procedures

• Tested how well participants could recall a North American folk story, ‘War of the Ghosts’

• Story had many unusual and strange supernatural elements (unfamiliar to British participants)

• Participants read the story and were asked to repeat from memory after different periods (repeated production)

Results

• Story became more consistent with the participant’s cultural expectations: names and places changing (assimilation)

• Story became shorter the more it was retold (leveling), the cut out parts seemed trivial

• Participants changed the sequence of the story to understand it better (sharpening)

Biased

This laboratory experiment only had a sample of British undergraduate students

• No control group, would the results be different or similar if this was tested with British folktales or folktales from cultures similar to british

• Results cannot be generalized due to biased sample

• lack of ecological validity due to laboratory experiment

Empirical evidence

• Results support the theory of schemas

• Participants were organizing the information they received under categories

• assimilation, leveling, and sharpening demonstrated this