Cognitive Approach - Schema Theory

Question 1

What is a schema

Answer 1

Mental representations derived from past experiences and knowledge

Question 2

What are scripts

Answer 2

Patterns of behaviour that we engage in based on previous interactions with the environment (habits). Rehearsed behaviour

Question 3

Repeated reproduction

Answer 3

Participant learns material and recalls it repeatedly over various testing occasions.

Question 4

Serial Reproduction

Answer 4

A reads a story then tells it to B who then tells it to C

Question 5

Bartlett (1932)

Answer 5

Aim: To investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge

Participants: British

Procedure :
1. Bartlett told them a Native American Legend ‘The War of the Ghosts’
2. Two conditions: Repeated reproduction- told to reproduce after a short time again over days, weeks, months, or years /serial reproduction

Results:
1. No significant difference
2. Overtime story became shorter and conventional (retained only details that could be assimilated to the social and cultural background of the participants - Canoe = boat)
3. But main themes were remembered, but changed unfamiliar elements to match their own personal schemas

Conclusion:
Memory is reconstructive and that people will make information fit with their own personal schemas and beliefs

Question 6

Bartlett (1932 Evaluation

Answer 6

Strengths:
- Research began to investigate mental processes, opened the doors

Limitations:
- Intervals weren’t standardised -> no reliability of data
- No standard procedure ^^

Question 7

Brewer and Treyens (1981)

Answer 7

Aim: To investigate how schema affect the formation and retrieval of memories.

Participants : Uni psych students

Repeated measures

Procedure:
1. Participants were told to sit in an office while the experimenter left to make sure the previous participant was finished.
2. There was only one available chair to sit in so all of the participants had the same point of view.
3. After 35 seconds, the participant was told to go to the next room to be asked some questions. (3 conditions)
4.
- Recall: write down a description of items they could remember
- Drawing: Given an outline of room, asked to draw items they remembered
- Verbal recognition : read a list of objects and answered if they were in the room or not

Results:
1. Recall/ Drawing : more likely to remember items congruent with their schema of an office.
3. Verbal Recognition: More likely to identify incongruent items + schema congruent items that weren’t there

Conclusion:
schema has an effect on the encoding and recall of memories.

Question 8

Brewer and Treyens Evaluation (1981)

Answer 8

Strengths:
- participants were debriefed afterwards due to the use of deception and were not harmed.

Limitations:
-low ecological validity -> laboratory -> artificial
- sample bias

Question 9

Memory Processes

Answer 9

1. Encoding : Transforming sensory information into memory
2. Storage: creating a biological trace of the encoded information in memory, which is either consolidated or lost
3. Retrieval: using the stored information in thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.

Question 10

Evaluate Schema Theory

Answer 10

Strengths
- lots of research has supported the idea that schemas affect cognitive processes such as memory
- useful for understanding how people categorize information, interpret information, and make inferences
- contributed to our understanding of memory distortions and false memories

Limitations
- not yet entirely clear how schemas are acquired in the first place or the exact way they influence cognitive processes
- 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.