CATB
, RESEARCH METHODS
Explain the use of one research method in one study of the cognitive processes
Experiment
• Establishes cause-effect relationships
• Allows researchers to manipulate an independent variable and measure its effect on
dependent variable
• Other variables are keep constant to eliminate as many other factors that could
potentially influence the behavior.
• Participants are often randomly allocated to conditions.
Bartlett (1932)
Aim
Investigates the effect of repeated reproduction and serial reproduction on recall based on culturally
unfamiliar Chinook Folk-tale called “The War of the Ghosts”
Procedure
• Students from University of Cambridge (cultural background is English)
• The tale is originated from the indigenous group from the Columbia River which is located in western
Canada and America
• Participants read the story twice to themselves at their normal reading pace
• Then they studies related pictures for 4 minutes.
• 15 minutes later Bartlett collected their first reproductions of the story without using any original
material.
• Two conditions
• Repeated reproduction
→ Reproduce story several times over period of days, months, weeks and years
• Serial reproduction
→ Retelling story to a chain of participants like a game of a broken telephone.
Results
• Found that participants changed the story in several different ways as they tried to remember it.
• The story got shorter in successive reproductions - details are dropped as they become irrelevant to
the participant’ schemas for the story. (levelling)
• Unfamiliar words are replaced with more familiar words to English culture (assimilation) knowledge is
fit into the pre-existing schemas
• Story is arranged into more logical order (sharpening) and it refers to how the story was changed to
make it more culturally familiar (changing narrative, details and emotional states.
Conclusion
His participants change the story to fit their existing knowledge or fit the new knowledge into their pre-
existing schemas.
Both techniques led to error-prone memories, however repeated reproduction led to errors mostly in the
first reproduction that were then repeated later over years.
RM - Processes
, RESEARCH METHODS
Explain the use of one research method in one study of the cognitive processes
Experiment
• Establishes cause-effect relationships
• Allows researchers to manipulate an independent variable and measure its effect on
dependent variable
• Other variables are keep constant to eliminate as many other factors that could
potentially influence the behavior.
• Participants are often randomly allocated to conditions.
Bartlett (1932)
Aim
Investigates the effect of repeated reproduction and serial reproduction on recall based on culturally
unfamiliar Chinook Folk-tale called “The War of the Ghosts”
Procedure
• Students from University of Cambridge (cultural background is English)
• The tale is originated from the indigenous group from the Columbia River which is located in western
Canada and America
• Participants read the story twice to themselves at their normal reading pace
• Then they studies related pictures for 4 minutes.
• 15 minutes later Bartlett collected their first reproductions of the story without using any original
material.
• Two conditions
• Repeated reproduction
→ Reproduce story several times over period of days, months, weeks and years
• Serial reproduction
→ Retelling story to a chain of participants like a game of a broken telephone.
Results
• Found that participants changed the story in several different ways as they tried to remember it.
• The story got shorter in successive reproductions - details are dropped as they become irrelevant to
the participant’ schemas for the story. (levelling)
• Unfamiliar words are replaced with more familiar words to English culture (assimilation) knowledge is
fit into the pre-existing schemas
• Story is arranged into more logical order (sharpening) and it refers to how the story was changed to
make it more culturally familiar (changing narrative, details and emotional states.
Conclusion
His participants change the story to fit their existing knowledge or fit the new knowledge into their pre-
existing schemas.
Both techniques led to error-prone memories, however repeated reproduction led to errors mostly in the
first reproduction that were then repeated later over years.
RM - Processes
