Bartlett’s war of the ghosts

• Aim

  To investigate how memory is reconstructed when people are asked to recall information over a period of time

  And see if cultural expectations affect memory
• Method

  Told an unfamiliar Native American ghost story to British university students

  Asked to recall the story to others after 15 minutes

  Asked them to recall over a period of months and years
• Results

  Omissions = story was shortened as they forgot parts they didn’t understand (shortened from 330-150 words, no mention of ghosts)

  Order was changed

  Changes to detail = phrases were changed to fit their cultural understandings (canoe was changed to boat)
• Conclusion

  Students reconstructed information to something familiar and could understand
• Weaknesses

  -can’t be generalised as students were from the UK

  -story was unusual so may not reflect everyday memory processes