A1f1 Schemas and perception Flashcards
Schema
a framework of knowledge about an object, event or group of people that can affect our perception and help us to organise information and recall what we have seen
Brewer and Treyens (1981)
Participants were taken into a room to wait and told it was an office. They were then moved into another room and asked what they could remember about the room. They recalled more objects that fitted with the context of an office, like a desk and chair, and not like a skull, bottle or wine. This shows how context can produce expectations
Palmer (1975)
Students were tested in a laboratory experiment and shown visual scenes like a kitchen, office, etc. ( this was a repeated measures design). These scenes were shown for two second and provided a context. The participant was then shown an object briefly to identify. Objects might include a mailbox, a bread loaf and a drum. There were 4 levels of independent variables:
1) appropriate: e.g seeing bread after seeing the kitchen
2) inappropriate, similar object: e.g recognising a mailbox that looks like bread after seeing the kitchen
3) inappropriate, different context: e.g recognising a drum after seeing a kitchen
4) no context
DV- the number of correctly identified objects
Results- participants identified the most objects after seeing an appropriate context and the least after an inappropriate context.
Conclusion- Expectations and schemas affect perception
Strengths of Palmer (1975)
1) Palmer controlled how long participants saw the context and object for, so differences in accuracy were not due to memory
2) Participants had instructions and knew exactly what to do
3) Data from participants that forgot their glasses were not used lol
Weaknesses of Palmer (1975)
1) Participants were told what they would be doing- this may have caused some to try harder in some conditions.
2) As some data couldn’t be used, their were fewer results
