War of Ghosts (Bartlett,
1932)
Dr M.
The original study
• http://www.bartlett.psychol.cam.ac.uk/SomeExperimentsOn.htm
Cognitive processes are influenced by social and
cultural factors.
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
• Aim:
• To investigate how social and cultural factors
influence schemas and lead to distortions in recall
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Method:
• Twenty randomly selected British participants
listened to a tale from American-Indian folklore.
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Method:
• Task…as to recall story.
1. Then…asked to reproduce it after a short time
(15 minutes).
2. Few weeks later…2nd recall
3. Few months later…3rd recall
4. Years later…4th recall
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
• Method: Variables
• Independent Variable :
• The amount of time the participants were given to recall the
story. This could vary from days, weeks, months and years.
• Dependent Variable:
• How accurate and detailed the participants were able to recall
the story.
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Why would Bartlett choose these
people?
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
What do you think he was trying to prove
in terms of retrieval?
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Results:
• Main idea of the story was remembered but
unfamiliar elements were changed to ‘fit’ their own
cultural expectations.
• Three patterns of memory distortion.
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Results: Three patterns of distortion.
1. Assimilation:
• interpreted events based upon own their
culture (ex: canoes are “boats”)
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Results: Three patterns of distortion.
2. Levelling:
• story becomes shorter with each retelling
• from 330 to 180 words.
• participants omitted information deemed not
important.
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Results: Three patterns of distortion.
3. Sharpening:
• participants changed the order of the story in
order to make it make more familiar culturally.
Bartlett (1932) “The War of the Ghosts”
Implications:
1. The results of the study confirmed schema theory.
• How?
2. Memory is an active process.
• How?
3. Memories are not copies of experiences, but are
“reconstructions” filtered through schemas.
• How?
Bartlett’s “War of the Ghosts”
• Bartlett (1932) used multiple repetition of recalled material
to study distortions over time.
• Participants were given a 328 word Native American folk
tale “The War of the Ghosts” to read twice and then
reproduce 15 minutes later and also hours to months later.
• Total recall declined.
• What was recalled was shaped by the need to form a coherent
understandable story in the context of their own cultural
knowledge (schemata – concepts).
• He considered memory an active process of construction.
8
How does the way our memories work affect EWT?
• Bartlett’s famous research study: ‘War of the Ghosts’ (see
course guide) supported his ‘Schema’ or ‘Reconstructive
nature of Memory’ Theory:• Bartlett said that when remembering we piece together a
few highlights, then fill in details based on what we think
should have happened. Our memories working like rough
notebooks rather than video recorders.
• He said we use schemata to make sense of our world and to
help us remember.
• A schema is an organised package of information that stores
your knowledge about the world. Schemas are stored in
LTM.
• Your schemas tell you that if you see someone wearing a
short-sleeved shirt outside then there is unlikely to be snow
on the ground. Schemas can lead us to make assumptions
which may be wrong!