Bransford and Johnson (1972)

Aim

To investigate the effect of context on comprehension and memory of text passages.

Procedure/Method

Experiment; Independent measures design

Participants heard a tape-recorded passage and were required to recall it as accurately as they could, writing down as many ideas as possible.

There were 5 conditions (groups of participants).
· No context (1): participants heard the passage once
· No context (2): participants heard the passage twice
· Context before: prior to hearing the passage participants were given a context picture
· Context after: the context picture was given after participants already heard the passage
· Partial Context: participants were given a context picture prior to hearing the passage, but the picture only contained the elements mentioned in the passage without showing how they operate together.

Results

The passage contained 14 idea concepts in total. The average recall in the five groups was:
No Context (1): 3.6
No Context (2): 3.8
Context Before: 8.0
Context After: 3.6
Partial Context: 4.0

Conclusion

The "Context before" condition was the only condition that clearly made a difference in terms of participants' ability to comprehend the passage and recall it correctly. This can be explained by schema theory: the full context picture creates a mental representation which then influences the way information is encoded in memory. Idea units encountered in the passage are linked with the schema and in this way encoding is enhanced.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:
- Experiment/tight control -> high internal validity/cause + effect relationship established
- Independent measures -> reduce demand characteristics

Limitations:
- Participant Variability
Tight control of experiment; lack of mundane realism

Cognitive Psychology

The scientific study of mental processes such as "attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking".

Schema

A mental framework that an individual uses to organize information and encode cognitive processes and stimuli.

Schema Theory

In this theory, John Piaget stated that a schema is the category of knowledge and its acquisition. New information is assimilated into current schemas which are required to accommodate it.

Encoding

The act of getting information into our memory system through automatic or effortful processing.

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Accommodation

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.