Bransford and Johnson (1972)

Title

contextual prerequisites for understanding: some investigations of comprehension and recall

Background

schemas influence memory processes at all stages - encoding, storage, and retrieval

Aim

to investigate how the availability of prior knowledge affects comprehension and memory of linguistic material

Participants

Experiment 1: 50 participants were divide into five groups of ten
Experiment 2: 52 participants were divided into three different groups

Procedure

Experiment 1 and 2:
first there was an acquisition phase when participants heard a passage. after having heard the passage there was a two-minute delay. then participants indicated how comprehensible they found the passage on a scale of 1-7. the participants were given 7 minutes to write down that they recalled from the passage.

Conditions of experiment 1: a) one group only heard the passage once b) one group heard the passage twice c) one group was presented with an appropriate picture after they heard the passage d) one group was presented with a partially relevant picture before the passage e) the last group was presented with the appropriate picture before hearing the passage

Conditions of experiemnt 2: a) one group heard the passage b) one group heard the passage and were then informed what the passage was about c) informed what the passage was about and then heard the passage

Results

Experiment 1:
participants in the no context condition (passage once) recalled 2.6 idea units (out of 14); no context 2 (passage twice) recalled 3.8 units; context after 3.6 units; partial context 4.0 units; context before 8.0 units

Experiment 2:
the participants who knew the topic before the recall had significantly higher comprehension and number of recalled ideas

Conclusion

schemas enhance memory in all stages (encoding, storage, and retrieval)

Method

lab experiment
IV: (no) context before/after; (no) picture before/after, relevance of picture
DV: ability to recall, comprehension rating

Critical thinking: methodological considerations

strengths:
- cause and effect relationship
- increased control and accuracy
- objectivity
- standardization
- internal validity
limitations:
- total control = impossible
- artificial (lacks mundane realism)
- biased results
- ethics (protection from harm)

Critical thinking: alternative explanations

the participants may have been distracted by confounding variables which may have influenced their ability to recall; the participants' familiarity with the given context affects recognition and integration

Critical thinking: gender bias

as it can be assumed that both men and women participated, the results apply to a wider range of the population despite the small sample

Critical thinking: ethical considerations

the study was ethical because there was informed consent, the participants were not deceived, they were debriefed, their identities remained confidential, they could withdraw, and they were protected from mental and physical harm

Critical thinking: cultural considerations

as the study took place in a WEIRD country, there is a certain extent of cultural bias. nevertheless, as the ethnic/cultural background of the participants was not revealed, it cannot be ensured whether the results are biased

Critical thinking: applications

the results of the study show that it is better to have a comprehensive understanding of a certain topic before studying details, hence proving useful when studying and using different manners of enhancing learning (development of study techniques)

How does this study demontrate the schema theory?

the study supports the schema theory because schemas provide frameworks for organizing information, events, situations, places, and people into the relevant context; this is displayed by the participants' ability to recall the passage in greater detail when shown the picture beforehand (they established a mental representation). this helps comprehension and therefore aids the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. relevant schematic knowledge hence had a beneficial effect on recall because it improved the integration of the context into memory.