A report on some experiments in group remembering and forgetting

Abstract

Broadly, this series of experiments was designed to investigate some of the factors involved in the processes of group remembering and forgetting. Questionnaire tests were employed involving the reconstruction of previously experienced story material. This line of approach to the problem was suggested by the methods which F. C. Bartlett employed in two of his experiments on remembering. Bartlett's methods of 'Repeated Reproduction' and 'Serial Reproduction' See Bartlett, "Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology," chaps. V. & VII. for a detailed consideration of these two methods in operation both make use of story material in their application. According to the first method the observer is presented with a story which he reads and then, after a short interval, attempts to reproduce. Later reproductions are attempted at intervals of increasing length. The method of 'Serial Reproduction' applies this same technique to a number of subjects. The difference being that here the reproduction of a given subject in the group becomes itself the version of the story which is handed on to the next observer and upon which his reproduction will depend. In this way the story was handed on to many observers, Bartlett's aim being "to study the effects of the combination of changes brought about by many different individuals." (op. cit. p.118).