2nd Theory of memory

BARTLETT (1932) Is memory reconstructed?

Read the following;

‘When the man entered the kitchen, he slipped on a wet spot on the floor and dropped the delicate glass vase he was holding. The glass vase was very expensive and everyone watched the event with horror.’

Now write out the paragraph you have read, word for word.

How much can you remember?

The big question…

Did anybody write about the glass being broken or smashed?

This is not in the original paragraph but the sentences imply that it occurred. This triggers a schema for broken glass and so it is recalled in that way.

Do you remember?

• Please write down in as much detail as you can, the story I read out to you in a previous lesson – it was the eskimo folk tale!

Bartlett (1932)

• Memory is not like a tape recorder• Memory is not perfectly formed, perfectly

encoded and then perfectly retrieved• A memory that is retrieved is unlikely to be

exactly the same as the original

• He argued that Memory is reconstructed

Bartlett (1932)

• Demonstrated that past and current experiences of individuals does affect their memory for events

• There would be INPUT, which would be the perception of an event, then there would be PROCESSING. This would include the perception and also the INTERPRETATION of the event

• Retrieval – would involve previous experiences and exiting SCHEMA

Bartlett (1932)

• SCHEMA - are ideas and scripts about the world

• These scripts or schema provide people with expectations and rules about what to do, how to behave, what to think etc

• Can you think of any schemas you hold?

Bartlett (1932)

Memory of an event involves both the information from specific traces encoded at the time of the event as well as the ideas that the person has from their existing knowledge, expectations, beliefs and attitudes.

Remembering involves retrieving information that has been altered to fit with knowledge that the person already has

Evaluation of Bartlett (1932)

There is much evidence for the theory; Bartlett (1932) and the work of Loftus on EWT

Bartlett’s theory can be tested experimentally

Bartlett’s story didn’t make sense so Ps may have altered it because of demand characteristics

The theory describes memory as reconstructive but does not deal with the processes