Bartlett (1932)

• Bartlett wanted to investigate the effect of previous memory and knowledge (schemas) on remembering a story
• He wanted to see if cultural differences and social norms would distort memory
• Hypothesis

  Memory is reconstructed and retrieved and recalled in accordance to expectations and schemas
• Bartlett told a group of British participants a Native American legend with many unfamiliar names, terminology, and concepts
• Conditions in Bartlett's study

  • Repeated recognition
  • Serial repetition
• Repeated recognition

  1. Recall after being told the story

  2. Repeated from days to years
• Serial repetition

  Retold the story to someone else
• The different conditions made no difference to the results
• Participants changed the story to fit their own schemas, reconstructing their memory of the story to make it easier to remember
• Patterns of distortion

  • Assimilation
  • Leveling
  • Sharpening
• Assimilation


  Details were changed to fit cultural norms
• Leveling


  Details that were deemed insignificant were omitted
• Sharpening

  Changed the order of the story to make more sense in accordance with their culture
• Participants remembered the main themes of the story but changed many details according to their personal schemas
• Bartlett's study indicates that remembering is not a passive but rather an active process
• Information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas
• Strengths of Bartlett's study

  • High ecological validity
  • Different “repetition” techniques
  • Types of distortion identified
  • British controlled variable
  • Cause-effect established
• Limitations of Bartlett's study

  • Not very standardised experiment and not very repeatable
  • Could have different cultures investigated too
  • Assumption that the British do not know the culture/story well