2. Schema Theory
Key concepts:
Cognition: is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. One of the cognitive processes is memory.
Memory: is the process which the information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.
· Encode – the input of information into the memory system
· Stored – is the retention of stored information
· Retrieved – getting information out of memory storage
Schema: mental representations that organize our knowledge, beliefs, and expectations. We use schemas to organize current knowledge and provide a framework for future understanding.
Schema theory claims that Our knowledge of the world is organized and categorized, which can influence our cognition and behavior.
How & Why: As active processors of information, humans integrate new information with existing, stored knowledge (our schemas) and this can improve our comprehension of that information.
For example, using mobile phone……
Types of Schemas:
· Self-schemas: mental representations about ourselves
· Person schemas: focused on specific individuals.
· Scripts: mental representations about sequences of events
Study:
One type of schema is cultural schema. It is the mental representation of the culture, helping people to organize knowledge related to the specific culture, including what people should and shouldn’t do.
Another type of schema is self-schema, it is help people to organize information when we encode new memory.
Bransford
Schema can influence the encoding of knowledge, by building mental representations and organize knowledge encoded. This could be seen in the study done by Bransford.
· Aim: Investigate how schemas help us to store new information in our memory.
· Design:
o Lab experiment, independent measures design
o 57 people are randomly divided into three groups to read an instruction on laundry. Group 1 receives a topic before reading, Group 2 receives a topic after reading, Group 3 didn’t receive any topic, which serves as a control group.
o All participants are then tested on the comprehension and the details they recalled.
· Result & Conclusion:
o Group 1 had significantly better memory than the other two groups.
o schemas may affect people to interpret the information based on prior knowledge of the world.
· Link-back:
o Schemas help the participants in the experiment to encode new information by on the base of the title they hear before, which makes them to construct a more detailed memory about the paragraph.
· Evaluation:
o The study is simplistic and easy to replicate. This is a lab experiment, which means the procedure will be standardized and highly in detailed. For example, all the verbal instructions can be recorded down and play through a speaker to ensure that every time the paragraph sounds same. Replicable makes the study reliable.
o The study uses independent sample design. This may lead to a possible confounding variable which is participant variability. People assigning to different groups may have different experience in laundry. Make the result less sensitive to schema. To eliminate this confounding variable, the researcher may prepare two sets of scenarios, and use repeated measure and counterbalance the scenarios.
Bartlett
Schema can also affect how memory is retrieved. The pre-existing schema might alter the memory when memory is retrieved.
· Aim: To investigate how cultural schemas can influence memory.
· Design:
o Separate British participants to two conditions and let them memorize an unfamiliar American rural story called War of Ghost.
o Condition 1: repeated reproduction - repeat the story immediately +repeat after different time intervals, condition 2: serial reproduction - repeat it to another person and passed on.
· Result & Conclusion:
o No significant difference between two recall groups.
o Participants distorted the story more consistent with their own culture.
o Memories are not copies of an experience but rather a reproduction.
· Link-back:
o Participants found it difficult to remember the "War of the Ghosts" because the story does not fit any of our cultural schemas.
o Cultural schemas can lead to memory distortions, as we try to "fit" the new information to our existing.
· Evaluation:
o High ecological validity – the task that participant has asked to do is to simple repeat a story to other. The similar task has been addressed commonly in real-life setting, which means that participant will be familiar with the task and perform normally to reflect their mental process about schema theory.
o Lacks control – Due to the characteristic of quasi-experiment, the IV can’t be manipulated by experimenters. The IV of the experiment is the British schema of those participants. The experiment design didn’t include a control group to eliminate the possibility that other factor apart from their schema could leads to this result. To solve this problem, the researcher should add a control group with American participant. This could ensure that the British schema leads to the distortion of recall in story.
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