Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies

The schema theory

-The schema theory, as coined by Frederic Bartlett states that "as active processors of information, humans integrate new information with existing, stored information." -A schema is a mental representation of knowledge that is created through previous experiences over time throughout a person's life. It helps us organise experiences and information and make sense of the world by relating everything to things we already know. -Schemas are influenced by our upbringings, culture, past experiences and general knowledge of the world etc Existing knowledge stored in our memory and organized in the form of schemas will affect information processing and behaviour in specific settings. Type of schemas: -Scripts: provide information about the sequence of events in a particular situation -Self-schemas: organise information we have about ourselves -Social schemas: represent information about groups of people

Bransford and Johnson (1972) RESULTS

Context was only useful if presented before the story. 'no context' group recalled on average 3.6 ideas, the 'context after' group also recalled 3.6 ideas but 'context before' recalled an average of 8 ideas

WEAKNESSES OF SCHEMA THEORY

Cohen (1993) - "the whole idea of a schema is too vague to be useful" - schema theory provides no explanation of how schemas work Difficult to define a schema Formation of schemas cannot be tested The theory is not clear how schemas are acquired in the first place.

Power of schemas illustrated the role of schemas in our understanding and recall of information

In this experiment, you can think of the picture as the schema. It serves to structure the information you get in the paragraph, and select what you remember about it. Without that structure, you don't having anything to pick what you should remember, so you don't remember much of anything. And the fact that the picture only worked if you gave it to the participants before they read the paragraph is important, because it suggests that schemas are doing their work at encoding, that is, when you're storing the new information.

Bransford and Johnson (1972) EVALUATION

Most people report that they have great difficulty in understanding the passage let alone trying to recall the details. However if you reread the passage with the title, 'Washing Clothes' in mind everything should fall into place. The title provides a schema so that the information can be stored appropriately and recalled more easely appropriate contextual informa- tion can facilitate comprehension of ambiguous passages, but only if the information is provided prior to receiving the passage.

Bartlett (1932) RESULTS

Participants changed the story as they tried to remember it - a process called distortion. • Assimilation: The story became more consistent with the participants' own cultural expectations -The main themes were remembered, but details were unconsciously changed to those more familiar to their own cultural expectations. • Levelling: The story also became shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information which was seen as not important Sharpening: the subjects tended to change the order of the story in order to make it more coherent to themselves. They also tended to add emotions and extra information that was not in the original story in order to fit their own cultural frameworks.

Bransford and Johnson (1972) METHOD

Participants were read a long passage (designed to be abstract and unfamiliar) and then asked to recall it as accurately as possible. Researchers measured participants ratings of comprehensibility of the story, and the number of ideas recalled Participants were divided into three groups: no context, context before and context after group. Context was provided in the form of a picture

Brewer and Treyens (1981) EVALUATION

Strengths: • Strict control over variables-to determine cause and effect relationship Limitations: • Lacks ecological validity-done in controlled laboratory setting (artificial environment) • Small sample

STRENGTHS OF SCHEMA THEORY

Supported by many studies Useful concept in helping us understand how we process/store/retrieve knowledge Provides information on the phenomena of memory distortion Schema Theory helps us understand how the stereotyping and prejudice work.

Bartlett (1932) 'The War of Ghosts' AIM

To investigate how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge • He wanted to see if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when the story was recalled. • Bartlett's hypothesis was that memory is reconstructive and that people store and retrieve information according to expectations formed by cultural schemas

Brewer and Treyens (1981) AIM

To investigate whether people's memory for objects in a room (office) is influenced by existing schemas about what to expect in an office.

Bartlett (1932) EVALUATION

Weaknesses: • Low ecological validity-laboratory experiment, not a real-life situation. However, the use of naturalistic material, as opposed to nonsense, is more applicable to real life • Non generalizable-all male, all British (cultural differences) • Participants did not receive standardized instructions, so some of the distortions could be due to participants' guessing (demand characteristics)

Bransford and Johnson (1972) AIM

to investigate the role of schemas in our understanding and recall of information.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) METHOD

• 30 university students were used as participants • They arrived individually at a laboratory and asked to wait in an office containing objects (desk, typewriter, coffee pot, etc.) • There were also objects that did not conform to the office schema (skull, piece of bark, pair of pliers, etc.) • They knew they were to take part in a psychological experiment but they did not realise they were already a part of it. • After three minutes they were called into another room and asked what they remembered from the office

Bartlett (1932) METHOD

• Bartlett performed an experiment on 20 British male participants using serial and repeated reproduction, Serial reproduction: the first participant reading the story reproduces it on paper, which is then read by a second participant who reproduces the first participant's reproduction, and so on until it is reproduced by six or seven different participants. Repeated reproduction: the same participant reproduces the story six or seven times from their own previous reproductions. They were then asked reproduce several times over the course of weeks, months and years. • Participants were told a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts. • The story was filled with unknown names and concepts, and the manner in which the story was developed was also foreign for the participants. The story was therefore ideal to study how memory was reconstructed based on schema processing.

Bartlett (1932) CONCLUSION

• Demonstrated that memory can be altered by existing schemas • Reconstructive memory-memories are not copies of experiences but instead reconstructions, creating meaning from incoming information

Brewer and Treyens (1981) RESULTS

• Most participants recalled the schematic objects (desk, typewriter) • Some participants reported things that would be expected in an office but were not present (phone, books) • Many participants also recalled the skull (not predicted by schema theory) *suggests extreme schemata-contradicting facts tend to stick in one's memory as well. This is because the information comes as a "shock" to the subjects.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) CONCLUSION

• Participants' schema of an office influenced their memory of it. • They did not recall the wine and picnic basket because it is not part of their "typical office" schema.