Brewer & Treyens (1981)

Brewer and Treyens (1981) was a study that suggested that schemas affect memory recall and supported the idea of reconstructive memory.

Aim
To investigate whether people's memory for objects in an office is influenced by existing schemas about what to expect in an office (false memory)

Procedure

 * Participants arrived in an office and were asked to wait there
 * The office had normal stuff but also random things
 * Participants were left there for a little bit then brought down the hall to be questioned about what was in the office

Results

 * The participants could remember the things that they usually would have found in an office
 * Some remembered things you would find in an office, but weren't in that particular office (false memories)
 * Some remembered the unexpected objects

Evaluation

 * Not generalizable
 * Ecological validity was low; lab experiment
 * Immoral - deception