Remembering Bartlett

Bartlett's work highlighted the interplay between individual experiences and cultural contexts in shaping memory, anticipating later social and cultural psychology developments. His concept of schemas has been foundational in various areas of psychology, including developmental psychology, which helps explain how children learn and assimilate new information, and clinical psychology, which informs cognitive-behavioural therapies.

Bartlett's insights into memory are also profoundly relevant to developing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI systems today are built on the premise of learning from data, much like humans learn from experiences. Concepts akin to Bartlett's schemas can be seen in how AI models use prior knowledge to make sense of new information.

The idea that memories (or data) are actively constructed and can be distorted by biases aligns with challenges faced in AI, such as the need for algorithms to handle noisy, incomplete, or biased data. Moreover, understanding how human memory works can inspire more sophisticated and human-like AI systems that better mimic human learning and memory processes.

As AI advances, incorporating more nuanced and human-like memory systems, Bartlett's pioneering work remains a touchstone. His emphasis on the dynamic, constructed nature of memory and the role of individual and cultural factors offers valuable lessons for cognitive scientists and AI researchers striving to create machines that can learn and adapt in increasingly human ways.

Bartlett was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and knighted in 1948. Today, almost a century after its publication, Remembering is still worth reading-for its clarity, empirical rigour, and, like all good psychological research, its revelations of what makes us human.