Cognitive schema - bransford & johnson

Cognitive schema

• a cluster of knowledge or memory that is stored in the mind

• organised groups of info about the world, events, or people stored in LTM

• can help save cognitive energy and make processing info easier

aim of bransford & johnson

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

method of bransford & johnson

• 52 pp

• pp were read a vague passage about laundry with either with no title, given the title after hearing the passage, given title before and while hearing the passage

• after hearing passage, pp given 2 min delay then given 7 minutes to write down everything they recalled from passage

results of bransford & johnson

• pp who knew topic before hearing passage (title before), had a higher comprehension and could recall more

• pp who were not given a schema (title) had the lowest recall and pp with schema after passage were close to lowest recall

conclusion of bransford & johnson

• in conclusion, the title before condition pp, activated schematic knowledge about what is involved in washing clothes and that helped to remember more of the paragraph compared to pp who couldn’t activate schema while reading passage

• memory and comprehension is increased with the availability of a prior schema

link back of bransford & johnson

• cognitive schemas of prior knowledge can improve comprehension and memory of new info

• when schema is activated, then new info is related to prior knowledge so it makes more sense