STUDIES - Bartlett (1932) Flashcards
1
Q
Introduction
A
- One of the first studies to prove existence of schemas and how cultural schemas influence memory
2
Q
Aim
A
- Investigate how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge
- He wanted to see if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when story was recalled
3
Q
Procedure
A
SAMPLE
- British participants unfamiliar with American native story called “The War of Ghosts”
METHOD
Independent measures with random allocation to 2 groups:
- G1 (repeated reproduction): Participants heard story and were told to reproduce it over various testing occasions
- G2 (serial reproduction): Participants heard store and were told to really it and repeat it to another participant
VARIABLES
- IV: Method of reproduction
- DV: How story was recalled
4
Q
Results
A
- No significant difference between the way the groups recalled the story, as both conditions changed it (distortion)
- Overall remembered main themes in store but changed elements to match schemas and expectations
- Story remained coherent (structurally) but changed
HAD 3 PATTERNS OF DISTORTION:
1) Assimilation
- Story became more consistent with participants’ own cultural expectations (details unconsciously changed to fit norms of UK culture)
- More conventional: Details that could be assimilated retained
2) Levelling
- Story became shorter with each retelling as they omitted information seen as unimportant
3) Sharpening
- Changed order of story to make sense of it after changing cultural aspects
5
Q
Findings
A
- People remember stories in terms of what makes sense to them
- Memory is subject to distortions because of schemas
- Proved that schemas are complex unconscious knowledge structures (major contribution to psychology)
6
Q
Strengths
A
- High ecological validity: Several applications and many real-life situations
7
Q
Limitations
A
- Uncontrolled methodology
- Not specific enough:
1) Procedure: Participants did not receive standardised instructions (e.g. recall time)
2) Low replicability: Hard to replicate, leading to low reliability (many researchers tried but couldn’t) - Low internal validity: IV didn’t affect DV and no CV to observe effect
- Method of recalling story did not affect the results
- Culture affected how story was recalled, which should be the IV, but that’d mean that it would be quasi-experiment as culture cannot be manipulated (no cause-and-effect)
- No control group: Should have Native Americans recall the story to verify that culture was factor that resulted in distortion