REMEMBERING: A STUDY IN EXPERIMENTAL AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Bartlett, F. Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge University Press, 1967 In his major work, Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (1932), Bartlett advanced the concept that memories of past events and experiences are actually mental reconstructions that are colored by cultural attitudes and personal habits, rather than being direct recollections of observations made at the time. In experiments beginning in 1914, Bartlett showed that very little of an event is actually perceived at the time of its occurrence but that, in reconstructing the memory, gaps in observation or perception are filled in with the aid of previous experiences. A later work, Thinking: An Experimental and Social Study (1958), broke no new theoretical ground but added observations on the social character of human thinking. Full text