Bransford and Johnson (1972) Flashcards
1
Q
Aim
A
To determine if schema activation would result in better understanding and recall of an ambiguous text.
2
Q
Method
A
- 52 participants
- Allocated to one of three conditions
- In the No Topic group participants heard a passage with no additional information.
- In the Topic After group participants were told the topic of the passage after hearing it.
- In the Topic Before group participants were told the topic of the passage before hearing it.
- All participants were told that they were going to hear a tape-recorded passage.
- Were told that they would later be asked to recall the passage as accurately as possible.
- All participants were tested at the same time, but they had different answer booklets.
- For those who were in the Topic Before group, their instruction sheet said, “The paragraph you will hear will be about washing clothes.”
- After listening to the passage, they were asked to rate their comprehension of the passage on a 1 - 7 scale.
- On the final page of the booklet, they were asked to recall the passage as accurately as possible.
- The Topic After group’s instructions included, “It may help you to know that the paragraph was about washing clothes.”
3
Q
Results
A
- With title before, remembered 5.8 of the ideas
- With no title remembered, 2.8 of the ideas
- With the title afterward remembered 2.6 of the ideas
4
Q
Conclusion
A
The researchers concluded that “prior knowledge of a situation does not guarantee its usefulness for comprehension. In order for prior knowledge to aid comprehension, it must become an activated semantic context.”
5
Q
Strengths
A
- Easily replicable.
* Findings have been successfully applied to education.
6
Q
Limitations
A
- Experience with washing clothes may be a confounding variable.
- Artificial task, lacks ecological validity.
- Not possible to know that an actual “laundry schema” was active while listening to the text. There could be other reasons for the rate of recall.
