Bartlett's study of reconstructive memory
Aims: To investigate the effect of schema on participants' recall of a story. A schema includes expectations, attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes. This experiment was based to test Bartlett schema theory, which states that memory involves active reconstruction. Therefore parts of the event recalled are real but other bits consist of our knowledge of the world and past memories.
Procedures: 20
English participants took part in a natural experiment. They were presented
with a range of stories (or folk tales) from different cultures, making
it difficult for Western participants to understand fully their significance.
One of the stories was the Native Indian story called 'The War of the
Ghosts'. They were then asked to recall the story after periods of time.
Findings:
Participants' recall of the story got shorter and shorter after
multiple presentations. After about 6 PRESENTATIONS it
had been REDUCED FROM 330 WORDS TO 180. Participants
frequently added in their own interpretation. For example, the reference
to the canoe was often changed to a boat, and the whole theme of ghosts
was often forgotten.
Conclusion: Bartlett concluded that accuracy was rare in recalls. The changes in the recalled story showed that the participants were actively reconstructing it using their existing schemas. The recalled story gradually became more Western as items such as the canoe was changed to a boat. The ghosts were often forgotten because they are not an inportant feature of Western culture. This indicates that memory is influence by our existing knowledge, which in turn is created by the culture in which we live.
Evaluation:
The intervals at which the participants were asked to recall
the story often changed between different participants. Therefore the
results are NOT ENTIRELY RELIABLE.
As the experiment was a natural experiment it meant that it lacked control of OTHER FACTORS which may have affected the results.
DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS may have created bias. For example, the strangeness of the story may have indicated the participants to the research hypothesis, so they knew how they were expected to react. They may have also felt the desire to behave in the way the experimenter wants them to. These factors add up to a lack of INTERNAL VALIDITY.
However, Bartlett's research into memory was pioneering as he was the first person to suggest that memory was an ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS.
The idea of a schema is very VAGUE, and schemas differ from person to person, therefore results cannot be generalised.
Other Points: Other studies have suported
Bartlett's theory:
BOWER ET AL found that when people read a short passage about characters in a restaurant, they later recalled information that had not actually been in the passage. Suggesting that they were reconstructing the passage based on their restaurant schema.
ALLPORT + POSTMAN also found that people reconstructed a story told to them about a white man threatening a black man with a razor, to make the black man the one with a razor. This fitted their stereotypical schema of black people in the 1940's.
