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Frederic Bartlett

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies

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Abstract

Bartlett’s famous experiments on remembering emerged out of his earlier anthropological interests and as such highlight social and cultural factors at work in the process. However, they not only demonstrated how recall was framed by conventions of one’s group but also how it was person specific and interest driven. The method was aimed to make the context as natural as possible, and his analysis of the material was from the single cases and involved conversations with his already familiar participants. The theory of remembering that followed from this work emphasized the function that remembering has in everyday life, highlighting the role played by feelings, previous experience, conventions, and social relation dynamics in the process. Most importantly, change and weaving together of material from different contexts was for him a virtue rather than a vice of memory, in that it aided in the flexible adaption to and innovation in a complex and changing world.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Brady Wagoner

  2. Oslo New University College, Oslo, Norway

    Brady Wagoner

  3. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Brady Wagoner

Authors
  1. Brady Wagoner
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Correspondence to Brady Wagoner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Tech, Trondheim, Norway

    Lucas M. Bietti

  2. Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Martin Pogacar

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Wagoner, B. (2024). Frederic Bartlett. In: Bietti, L.M., Pogacar, M. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_38-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_38-2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-93789-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-93789-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Frederic Bartlett
    Published:
    13 September 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_38-2

  2. Original

    Bartlett
    Published:
    15 July 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_38-1

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