Schema theory - ERQ

Question 1

What is a schema?

Answer 1

Cognitive schemas are mental representations that organise our knowledge, beliefs and expectations.

A ‘mental representation’ is a very broad concept that can be applied to practically everything in the mind, but only the most stable and deeply rooted mental representations can influence our knowledge, beliefs and expectation.

Question 2

Brandsford and Johnson argument

Answer 2

That schemas can influence the encoding of information in memory and has been demonstrated in the study of Bransford and Johnson (1972). They showed that a visual context provided prior to reading text passage double the rate of recall of ideas from that passage.

Question 3

Aim of Brandsford and Johnson

Answer 3

Investigate how schemas help us to store new information in our memory

Question 4

Procedure of Brandsford and Johnson

Answer 4

3 groups of participants read a paragraph describing a number of steps in a procedure.

Some participants were told that the paragraph is about laundry before, after or are not.

Question 5

Findings of Brandsford and Johnson

Answer 5

The group that were told the topic of the paragraphbeforethey listened to it (Group 1) had significantly better memory than the other two groups.

Question 6

Conclusion of Brandsford and Johnson

Answer 6

Schemas help participants encode new information by making it possible to organize and interpret the information.
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Memory isn’t about simply “storing a copy” of what you hear, but involves actively interpreting what you hear based on prior knowledge of the world.

Question 7

Evaluation of Brandsford and Johnson

Answer 7

This study is easy to replicate, and has high reliability. It is easy to get the same results as the original study.
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This study utilisesan experimental design, demonstrating a causal relationship between schema activation (the IV) and ability to recall (the DV)
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This study involves an artificial task - it would be quite unusual to be read a paragraph without knowing having any idea what the paragraph is about. Therefore, this study may not have much relevance for everyday situations involving memory

Question 8

What is a good things about schemas that is shown by Brandsford and Johnson linking it to memory?

Answer 8

Schemas do a great job of helping us remember

Question 9

What is an issue with schemas?

Answer 9

The increase in memory efficiency can come at thecost of accuracy.

Schemas improve our memoryby relating new information to what we already know. Sometimes, the things we already know can contaminate our memory, leading to false or distorted recollection.

Question 10

What are the two ways that schemas can distort memory?

Answer 10

Information that is consistent with our schemas will be remembered well, but information which is inconsistent with our schemas may be forgotten or distorted to “fit” our schemas.This distortion happens at the moment of memory encoding - when a new event is stored into memory.

When you can’t remember an event well, you may “fill in” the missing details with your best guess, based on your schema for that event.This distortion happens at the moment of retrieval - when you are trying to remember an event from the past.

Question 11

Which study supports that schemas can distort memory?

Answer 11

Bartlett (1932)

Question 12

What did Bartlett show?

Answer 12

How cultural schema, schemas that we have based on our culture, leads to us fitting new information to our existing schemas.

Question 13

Procedure of Bartlett

Answer 13

British participants read a Native American fold story called “War of the Ghosts” twice, then asked to reproduce it from memory soon after, as well as on a later date.

The content and style of the story was unfamiliar to the British readers, as it was not written according to the storytelling conventions of English literature

Question 14

Findings of Bartlett

Answer 14

When the participants recalled the story, the length of the story became shorter, and the story became more conventional. Unusual details (such as the unfamiliar names, or the revelation that the warriors were actually ghosts) were left out or distorted (for instance, some participants remembered “boats” instead of the unfamiliar “canoes”)
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No matter how much the recollection of the story differed from the original, it remained a coherent, completestory. This suggests that participants tried to rememberthe story as a whole, rather than trying to memorise specific details individually

Question 15

Conclusion of Bartlett

Answer 15

Participants found it difficult to remember the “War of the Ghosts” because the story does not fit any of our cultural schemas. It is neither a typical horror story or war story, and hence it is difficult to relate to our existing knowledge of the world
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Cultural schemas can lead to memory distortions, as we try to “fit” the new information to our existing schemas

Question 16

Evaluation of Bartlett

Answer 16

This study supports the hypothesis that schemas can lead to distorted or false memories
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As this study took place a long time ago (1932), the conventions of modern Psychological research had yet to be developed. For instance, participants were not given standardised instructions, suggesting that the procedure was not carefully controlled.
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There is debate over theecological validityof this study. Some may argue that trying to memorise a story is an artificial task, which has questionable relevance for real life. On the other hand, we are often exposed to information second hand, through the telling of family and friends, which is not unlike trying to remember a story.

Question 17

Negative schemas

Answer 17

Beck (1964) proposed that schemas dominate the thoughts during depression, leading to cognitive distortions. This theory of ‘negative schemas’ causing depression formed the basis for his cognitive behavioural therapy in the 1960s and onwards.

In 1995, Young proposed that ‘early maladaptive schemas’ (EMS) are highly stable and enduring beliefs that often formed in childhood, and are responsible for the persistence, even after treatment, of a variety of mental disorders.

Question 18

Examples of EMS

Answer 18

Abandonment - the perceived unreliability of those available for support and connection

Defectiveness - the belief that one is defective, bad, and would be unlovable if exposed

Failure to Achieve - the belief that one has failed, is doomed to failure, and is generally inadequate to one’s peers.

Question 19

EMS linked to studies

Answer 19

The relationship with negative schemas is clear. EMS are used in studies investigating their mediating influence between childhood maltreatment and later psychiatric disorders and are now the basis for a growing number of specialised ‘schema-focused’ treatments.

Question 20

Strengths of schema theory

Answer 20

Supported by lots of research to suggest schemas affect memory processes knowledge, both in a positive and negative sense.

Through supporting studies, schema theory was demonstrated in its usefulness for understanding how memory is categorized, how inferences are made, how stories are interpreted, memory distortions and social cognition.

Question 21

Weaknesses of schema theory

Answer 21

Not many studies/research evidence that evaluate and find limitations of schema theory

Lacks explanation

It is not clear exactly
how schemas are initially acquired
how they influence cognitive processes
how people choose between relevant schemas when categorising people

Question 22

What did Cohen (1993) argue?

Answer 22

The concept of a schema is too vague to be useful.

Schema theory does not show how schemas are required. It is not clear which develops first, the schema to interpret the experiences or vice versa.

Question 23

What did Cohen (1993) argue?

Answer 23

The concept of a schema is too vague to be useful.

Schema theory does not show how schemas are required. It is not clear which develops first, the schema to interpret the experiences or vice versa.

Question 24

What does schema theory explain however…

Answer 24

Schema theory explains how new information is categorised according to existing knowledge.

But it does not account for completely new information that cannot link with existing knowledge.

Therefore, it does not explain how new information is organised in early life

E.g. language acquisition

Question 25

Conclusion

Answer 25

Provides an explanation for how knowledge is stored in the mind something that is unobservable and remains unknown in psychology

There is much research that supports schema theory
But its limitations are that,

It is unclear exactly how schemas are acquired and how people choose between schemas

It does not account for new information without a link to existing schemas

Overall, with the amount of evidence, schema theory should be considered an important theory that provides insight into information processing and behaviour.

Question 26

Overall of schema in what it has contributed but issue

Answer 26

It has contributed largely to our understanding of mental processes.

But the theory requires further research and refinements to overcome its limitations and uncover its unclear aspects

Question 27

How do schemas work?

Answer 27

As active processors of information, humans integrate new information with existing, stored information.

Schema theory therefore predicts that what we already know will influence the outcome of information processing.

In other words, new information is processed in the light of existing schema - schemas can affect our cognitive processes.