Cog : Schema Flashcards
INTRO
Schema theory argues that we are active processors of information and that our cognitive processes, such as memory, are influenced by our schemas.
A schema is a mental representation of the world and the way that our brain organizes information. They are based off of our prior experiences and general knowledge.
Since we are ‘cognitive miserers’, we use schemas to simplify the world around us and predict things with mental frameworks.
Schema are formed through a process known as assimilation where when we encounter something that is not in align with our current schema we can add this to our schema so that we will be prepared in the future with this situation.
However, we often only notice things that are in align with our schema, so we often see and remember what we expect to see.
STUDY 1 RESEARCHER
Brewer and Treyens
S1 AIM
effect of schema on memory recall
S1 PROCEDURE
They allocated university psychology students as participants and asked them to wait in an office individually for a short period of time.
The participant was brought into a room and was asked to recall objects in the office. The objects in the office were either in align or not with an OFFICE schema – that is, a mental representation of an office. For example, the office had pencils and a stapler, but there were also objects like a brick and a screwdriver.
The students were asked to remember these objects under 3 conditions, recall, drawing and a recognition condition.
RECALL: writing down the objects they remember
DRAWING: draw the objects
VERBAL RECOGNITION: read a list and asked if its there or not
S1 RESULTS
The researchers found with the recall and drawing conditions that the participants remembered objects in align with their schema of an office but did not recall objects that were not in align with their schemas.
However in the recognition condition where they were asked to choose objects from a list, participants were able to also recognize objects that were not in align with their schema as they were prompted by the researcher.
S1 CONCLUSION
Brewer and Treyens demonstrate how schemas influence memory recall. For example, more participants remembered objects congruent with what their schema expected them to find in an office than objects that are not usually found in an office.
This is important because it shows a person’s memory for the properties of a location will be strongly influenced by their default assumptions of what would typically be found there. Therefore, this study supports the assumption of schema theory that our previous understanding in a cultural setting influences our memory.
STUDY 2 RESEARCHER
Anderson and Pichert
S2 AIM
Influence of schema on retreival of info from LTM
S2 PROCEDURE
PPTs from an intro to psych participated to fufil a course requirement.
They were assigned either a homebuyer or burglar pov.
-> read a text passage about a house where 2 boys stayed to skip schl. Passage contained 73 ideas either interesting burgular or real estate agent.
-> PPTs given filler task than asked to reproduce the story in writing as accurately.
-> another filler, them some required to change intiral pov from homebuyer to burglar vice versa.
-> reproduce story without reading it again.
S2 FINDINGS
1st recall: those burgular recall more relevant info for a burgular. vice versa
-> trhose who changed pov recalled more (7.1%) info important to second pov but unimportant to first. * they didn’t read passage for the second time so before the change of the pov this additional info was encoded but not retreieved. the change of pov influenced retrevial not encoding.
S2 CONCLUSION
Persepcgtive was a type of schema, and this study supports that schemas influence process of retrevial from already stored info from memory
