What did Bartlett and Peterson and Peterson discover about memory?
Core studies: Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts and Peterson and Peterson (1959) on short-term memory duration, including their aims, methods, results, conclusions and evaluation, and the reductionism-holism debate.
A focused answer to the Edexcel GCSE Psychology Topic 2 core studies: Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts and Peterson and Peterson (1959) on short-term memory, with aim, method, results, conclusion, evaluation and the reductionism-holism debate.
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What this dot point is asking
Edexcel names two core studies for Topic 2: Bartlett (1932), the War of the Ghosts study of reconstructive memory, and Peterson and Peterson (1959), on the duration of short-term memory. You must know each study's aim, method, results and conclusion, and evaluate them. The topic also includes the reductionism-holism debate, which these studies illustrate.
Bartlett (1932): War of the Ghosts
The aim was to investigate how memory for an unfamiliar story changes over time and with repeated recall.
The method used War of the Ghosts, a Native American folk tale that seemed strange to Bartlett's English participants. Participants read the story and then recalled it repeatedly over time (a technique called serial reproduction and repeated reproduction), and Bartlett compared each version with the original.
The results were that recall became shorter, lost unfamiliar details, and was distorted to fit the participants' own culture: odd elements were omitted, unfamiliar ideas were transformed into familiar ones (for example "canoes" became "boats"), and the story was made more conventional. The conclusion was that memory is an active reconstruction shaped by schemas, not an exact copy, supporting the theory of reconstructive memory.
Evaluation. Strength: high ecological validity, because it used a meaningful story rather than artificial material, and it had huge influence on eyewitness research. Weakness: the method was not well controlled (instructions were vague and recall was scored subjectively by Bartlett), so results may be unreliable.
Peterson and Peterson (1959): short-term memory duration
The aim was to investigate the duration of short-term memory when rehearsal is prevented.
The method showed participants a nonsense trigram (three consonants with no meaning, such as WRT), then asked them to count backwards in threes from a number to prevent rehearsal. After different intervals (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds) they tried to recall the trigram.
The results were that recall declined sharply as the interval grew: after about 3 seconds most trigrams were recalled, but after 18 seconds only around 10 percent were correct. The conclusion was that short-term memory has a very short duration, around 18 seconds, when rehearsal is blocked.
Evaluation. Strength: a well-controlled lab experiment (standardised, easy to replicate), giving reliable evidence for STM duration. Weakness: it used artificial material (meaningless trigrams), so it lacks ecological validity, and it may measure displacement (new information pushing out old) rather than simple decay.
The reductionism-holism debate
Try this
Q1. What material did Bartlett use in his study? [1 mark]
- Cue. The folk tale War of the Ghosts.
Q2. How did Peterson and Peterson stop participants rehearsing? [1 mark]
- Cue. They had them count backwards in threes between seeing and recalling the trigram.
Q3. Explain one strength of Peterson and Peterson's study. [2 marks]
- Cue. It was a well-controlled lab experiment, so it is reliable and easy to replicate.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of Pearson Edexcel exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Edexcel 20184 marksDescribe the method and findings of Peterson and Peterson's (1959) study of short-term memory. (Paper 1)Show worked answer →
A 4-mark Describe item rewards an accurate account of the procedure and the key result.
Participants were shown a nonsense trigram (a set of three consonants, such as WRT) and then asked to count backwards in threes from a number to prevent rehearsal. After different intervals (for example 3, 6, 9 up to 18 seconds) they tried to recall the trigram. Recall fell sharply as the interval grew: after about 3 seconds most trigrams were recalled, but after 18 seconds only around 10 percent were. This showed that short-term memory has a very short duration of around 18 seconds without rehearsal.
Markers reward the trigram, the counting task to block rehearsal, recall after different intervals, and the finding that recall dropped to about 10 percent by 18 seconds.
Edexcel 20224 marksBartlett (1932) used the story War of the Ghosts. A psychologist tests recall with 20 participants and finds the mean number of details recalled is 14 after 1 day and 8 after 1 week. Calculate the percentage decrease in the mean number of details recalled, and explain what reconstructive memory predicts. (Paper 1)Show worked answer →
This item combines a maths skill with the theory; markers reward correct working and a linked explanation.
The decrease is from 14 to 8, a fall of 6 details. As a percentage of the original, , so recall fell by about 43 percent. Reconstructive memory predicts this drop because memory is rebuilt using schemas, so over time unfamiliar details are omitted or changed, and recall becomes shorter and more conventional, exactly the pattern Bartlett found with War of the Ghosts.
Markers reward the calculation (a fall of 6 from 14 is about 43 percent) and the explanation that reconstructive memory predicts loss and distortion of detail over time through schema use.
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Sources & how we know this
- Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Psychology (1PS0) specification — Pearson Edexcel (2017)