3.3 Schema Theory

Cognitive Schema

A cognitive schema is a mental framework or structure that organizes information and knowledge about a particular concept, object, or event.

Who created Schema Theory

Frederic Bartlett - 1932

How do humans use schemas

Mental frameworks for processing, interpreting, and recalling information.

Type of Schemas: Social Schemas

Social schemas - mental representations about various groups of people, for example, a stereotype

Type of schema: Scripts

Schemas about a sequence of events, for example, going to a restaurant or making a coffee

Types of schema: self-schema

Mental representations about ourselves

How do Schemas work: encoding

Schemas shape how we interpret new information

How do Schemas work: Storage

Information is organized within pre-existing schemas

How do schemas work: Retrieval

Memory recall is influenced by schemas, sometimes leading to memory distortions.

Effects that schemas have

Memory distortion

Confirmation bias

Influence on perception

Bottom-up processing

Occurs when the cognitive process is data-driven; perception i snot biased by prior knowledge or expectations.

Top-down processing

Occurs when your prior knowledge or expectations act as a lens or a filter for the information that you receive and process.

Bartlett et al. year

2008

Aim

To investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge

Method

Quasi Experiment

Design

Independent Measures

Sampling Strategy

Convenience

IV

Ppts cultural background / schema

DV

Recall accuracy of The War of the Ghosts

Procedure 1

Told ppts ‘The War of the Ghosts’

ppts were British, therefore, unfamiliar terms and names

Procedure 2

Ppts allocated to one of two conditions: repeated and serial reproduction

Procedure 3: Repeated

RR - ppts heard the story and were told to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again over a period of day, weeks, months, or years

Procedure 4: Serial

SR - ppts had to recall the story and repeat it to another person

Findings 1:

No sig difference between the way that the groups recalled the story

Findings 2:

All ppts changed the story when remembering - distortion

Findings 3: Three patterns of distortion (Assimilation)

Story became more consistent with the participants own cultural expectations

Findings 4: Three patterns of distortion (Levelling)

Story also become shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information which was seen as not important

Findings 3: Three patterns of distortion (Sharpening)

Story order got changed in order to make sense of it using terms more familiar to the culture of the participants.

Conclusion 1

Indicates that remembering is not a passive but rather an active process

Done in order to create meaning of the incoming information

What study should be used with Barlett in a schema theory ERQ question

Bransford and Johnson

Bransford and Johnson Year

1972

Aim

To investigate the role of prior contextual knowledge in the comprehension and subsequent recall of a prose passage

Method

True Lab experiment

Design

Independent Measures

Sampling Strategy

Convenience (Experiment 1: 50 / Experiment 2: 52

Dependent Variable

• Comprehension ratings

• Recall Scores

Independent Variable

Experiment 1:

Appropriate Context Before / After

Partial Context Before

No Context (heard once)

No Context (heard twice)

Procedure 1:

Participants heard tape-recorded passage

Context Before and Partial Context: 30 seconds to view pictures

Procedure 2:

After hearing the passage participants completed a comprehension rating using the seven-point scale

Procedure 3:

Short delay (2 mins)

Participants asked to recall in writing within 7 min time frame

Recall scored on number of units recalled

Findings 1:

Context Before: significant higher comprehension ratings and recalled significantly more

Context After and Partial Context: no significant increase in recall and comprehension compared to no context

heard twice: no significant increase either

Conclusion 1

Activation of an appropriate schema is a crucial prerequisite for the effective comprehension and subsequent recall of a passage

Conclusion 2

Activation of schema needs to occur during initial processing to facilitate meaningful interpretation

Conclusion 3

Empirical evidence - comprehension is not passive but active