The War of the Ghosts The War of the Ghosts. One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while they were it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war cries and they thought; 'Maybe this is a war-party.' They escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log. Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise of paddles and saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five men in the canoe and they said; 'What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are going up the river to make war on the people.' One of the young men said; 'I have no arrows.' 'Arrows are in the canoe,' they said. 'I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have gone. But you,' he said, turning to the other, 'May go with them.' So one of the young men went, but the other returned home. And the warriors went on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. The people came down to the water and began to fight, and many were killed. But presently, one of the young men heard one of the warriors say; 'Quick let us go home. That Indian has been hit.' Now he thought; 'Oh, they are ghosts.' He did not feel sick, but he had been shot. So the canoes went back to Egulac, and the young man went back to his house and made a fire. And he told everybody and said; 'Behold, I accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows were killed and many of those that attacked us were killed. They said I was hit, but I did not feel sick.' He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose, he fell down. Something black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried. He was dead.

Cognitive Psychology This approach is interested in the way we receive, process, store and communicate information. Play clip @ 4.48 mins.

What’s this picture of?

You see this man in our school. Who is he? (Write it down)

You see one of these signs on a door.

You see these men in school, who are they?

Which room in the house is this? How do you know?

Which room of the house is this?

Which room of the house is this?

? The mind takes in the impoverished sensory input and matches it to a schema derived from past experience. The schema is used to ‘fill in the blanks’ in the input and to give it a meaning. Your ability to ‘see’ what’s there depends on your having an appropriate schema.

Write a schema for what a school looks like.

Schema is… A cognitive structure which provides a framework for organising information about the world, events, people, actions. Bartlett viewed schema as organisations of past experience.

Schema theory Organises information in memory Can be activated to increase information-processing efficiency Generates expectations about people, events, objects. Regulate behaviour Stable and resistant to change

Schemas Reconstructive Memory - Bartlett (1932) Bartlett's theory of Reconstructive Memory is crucial to an understanding of the reliability of eye witness testimony (EWT) as he suggested that recall is subject to personal interpretation dependent on our learnt or cultural norms and values- the way we make sense of our world. In other words, we tend to see and in particular interpret and recall what we see according to what we expect and assume is 'normal' in a given situation. Bartlett referred to these complete mental pictures of how things are expected to be as Schemas. These schemas may, in part, be determined by social values and therefore prejudice.

Memory is an active process... Schemas are therefore capable of distorting unfamiliar or unconsciously 'unacceptable' information in order to 'fit in' with our existing knowledge or schemas. This can, therefore, result in unreliable eyewitness testimony. Bartlett tested this theory using a variety of stories to illustrate that memory is an active process and subject to individual interpretation or construction. Have a go! Read the following story and then remove from screen and attempt to recall it.

The War of the Ghosts The War of the Ghosts. One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while they were it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war cries and they thought; 'Maybe this is a war-party.' They escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log. Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise of paddles and saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five men in the canoe and they said; 'What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are going up the river to make war on the people.' One of the young men said; 'I have no arrows.' 'Arrows are in the canoe,' they said. 'I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have gone. But you,' he said, turning to the other, 'May go with them.' So one of the young men went, but the other returned home. And the warriors went on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. The people came down to the water and began to fight, and many were killed. But presently, one of the young men heard one of the warriors say; 'Quick let us go home. That Indian has been hit.' Now he thought; 'Oh, they are ghosts.' He did not feel sick, but he had been shot. So the canoes went back to Egulac, and the young man went back to his house and made a fire. And he told everybody and said; 'Behold, I accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows were killed and many of those that attacked us were killed. They said I was hit, but I did not feel sick.' He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose, he fell down. Something black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried. He was dead.

According to Bartlett your recall will show a westernised interpretation of this American Indian folk tale thus illustrating your subjective memory construction rather than accurate objective recall of events. We fit information into our all ready existing schema. How might this idea be applied to eyewitness testimony of criminal occurrences ?

Bartlett Bartlett’s famous research study: ‘War of the Ghosts’ supported his ‘Schema’ or ‘Reconstructive nature of Memory’ Theory:- Bartlett said that when remembering we piece together a few highlights, then fill in details based on what we think should have happened. Our memories working like rough notebooks rather than video recorders. He said we use schemata to make sense of our world and to help us remember. A schema is an organised package of information that stores your knowledge about the world. Schemas are stored in LTM. Your schemas tell you that if you see someone wearing a short-sleeved shirt outside then there is unlikely to be snow on the ground. Schemas can lead us to make assumptions which may be wrong!

Cognitive psychology tries to explain why we all experience the world in different ways . Memory Perception Attention Thought Language