Schema Theory Evaluation

Strengths

A significant amount of research has supported the idea that schemas affect cognitive processes such as memory. The theory seems quite useful for understanding how people categorize information, interpret information and make inferences. Schema theory has contributed to our understanding of memory distortions and false memories.

Empirical evidence:

All of the studies above serve as empirical evidence for the theory. There is also biological research to support the way in which the brain categorizes input. For example, Mahone et al (2009) found that from the visual cortex, information about living and non-living objects is shuttled to different parts of the brain - even in blind participants. These findings suggest that our brains automatically sort information and classify it, in the same manner which schema theory predicts.

Construct validity

Does it really measure what it intends to measure: schemas? Cohen (1993) argued that the concept of schema is too vague and hypothetical to be useful. Schema cannot be observed and therefore many researcher criticize the theory since the concept they are trying to measure vague.

Applications

Schema theory has been applied to help us understand how memory works. It also helps us to understand memory distortion. Schema theory has also been applied to abnormal psychology (therapy for depression and anxiety), relationships (theories of mate selection) and in health psychology (health campaigns to change unhealthy behaviours). It is a robust theory that has many applications across many fields of psychology. One of these fields is the view on eyewitness testimony and whether it should be considered as valid evidence.

Unbiased

Schema theory is applied across cultures. There is no apparent bias in the research, although most of the early research was done in the West. (Bartlett is an example of that. He used English participants. But schemas have been investigate cross-culturally and they are universal.)

Testable

Schema theory is testable. This is seen in the studies by Bartlett and by Brewer & Treyens.

Limitations

Some of the limitations of schema theory are that it is not yet entirely clear how schemas are acquired in the first place or the exact way they influence cognitive processes. It has also been argued that schema theory cannot account for why schema-inconsistent information is sometimes recalled. However, in spite of some imperfections of the theory, it seems to be a robust theory that has generated a lot of research and still does.

Predictive validity

The theory helps to predict behaviour. We can predict, for example, what types of information will be best recalled when given a list of words. Trends, such as omitting information that is not of high relevance to the individual (as we can see in Bartlett's results), are commonly seen in individuals recalling a news story. However, we cannot predict exactly what an individual will recall. From Loftus and Palmer's research we can predict that eye-witnesses who are asked leading questions in court may use their existing schemas instead of ther actual memory of an event when answering qustions.