Which statement best captures Bartlett's War of the Ghosts memory study?

• A. Memory is reconstructive and shaped by cultural schemas.
• B. Memory is an accurate record of events.
• C. Memory is solely determined by sensory details.
• D. Memory is unaffected by prior knowledge.

Answer: (A)

Memory is reconstructive and guided by our prior knowledge and culture. In Bartlett's War of the Ghosts study, participants read a story from another culture and later tried to recall it. The recalls weren’t exact copies; they were transformed to fit the listeners’ own cultural expectations. People altered unfamiliar terms, added or omitted details, and reordered parts of the story to make it familiar. This shows how memories are built from existing schemas and top‑down knowledge rather than being perfect recordings of events. So, the idea that memory is reconstructive and shaped by cultural schemas best fits the findings.