... 'War of the Ghosts' experiment. (The pioneering British social psychologist), Sir Frederic Bartlett asked readers of the story, 'The War of the Ghosts' (appendix 4), to try to rewrite it, recalling it as accurately as possible. They read it through twice and recalled it after delays varying from 15 minutes after study to several years later. To most readers, this North American folk tale is fairly bizarre, and it is not surprising that in attempting to recall it, readers omit details, change things, and import new material. Personal interests and experiences play a part in retelling stories from memory. But what is most interesting is that Bartlett's readers (typically unconsciously) made the story more orderly and coherent within their own cultural framework. His subjects were mostly well-educated English people at the time of the First World War, but subsequent experiments have shown similar tendencies amongst other groups. Typical transformations of the ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now