Schema Theory

• Schema


  An organised mental framework that is stored in long term memory and contains everything you know about a particular object, person, situation or event
• Schema theory


  Describes how specific knowledge is organised and stored in memory so it can be accessed and used when needed
• Schema


  • Consists of concepts that are related to each other
  • Encodes general knowledge that can be applied to many different situations
  • Can be hierarchical, i.e. consist of sub-schemata/different levels
• Assimilation


  When new information adds to what we already know about a concept, without changing much about the rest of the schema
• Accommodation


  When you learn new information that challenges schema that has already been built, you may have to dismantle the schema and develop new schema to better accommodate this new information
• What schemas do


  • Help organise memories and aid recall
  • Guide our behaviour
  • Help predict what will happen next
  • Impact how quickly people learn
• Schemas lead to inaccurate recall


  • Information consistent with schemas is remembered well, but inconsistent information may be forgotten
  • 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
• Bransford & Johnson (1972) study

  1. Aim: To investigate how cognitive schemas influence recall and comprehension of a written passage

  2. Method: Independent measures design, 3 conditions - title before, title after, no title

  3. Results: Participants who received the title before had significantly higher comprehension ratings and recall

  4. Conclusion: Schemas play a role in both encoding and retrieval of information

  
• Participants who were given the passage context and heard the title before hearing the passage were able to use their pre-existing 'laundry' schema to help them with both encoding (comprehension) the information and retrieving it (recall)
• Participants that received the title after the speech received this vital information too late to fully understand what was read to them and by the time the title was revealed, some information had already been forgotten
• Those in the no title condition were not able to activate their schemas to assist them
• Encoding


  Transforming sensory information into a meaningful memory
• Storage


  Creating a biological trace of encoded information in memory, which is either consolidated or lost
• Retrieval


  Using the stored information
• Bransford and Johnson conducted a series of similar experiments using different passages and slightly different methods. They found the results to be consistent: activating schemas before listening to a passage improves recall and comprehension. This demonstrates the reliability of the findings
• Bransford and Johnson study


  • Offers support for schema theory
  • Demonstrates how schemas may influence recall and comprehension of information
  • Results have practical applications in educational settings
• Bransford and Johnson study


  • Highly controlled lab experiment with high internal validity
  • Use of independent measures design which could be impacted by individual differences
  • Artificial task with low ecological validity
• Anderson and Pitchert found that the group that had the burglar perspective recalled more burglar information and the group that had the homebuyer perspective recalled more homebuyer information. In other words, it is likely that the schema influenced retrieval
• Participants who changed their perspective recalled an additional 7.1% of the information relevant to their new perspective. The group that did not change perspective recalled 2.9% less information relevant to their perspective
• The study indicates that schema may play a role in both the encoding and recall of information
• The researchers found that when we rely on a schema to assist recall, this may limit what information we are able to recall. Those participants who switched schema from burglar to homebuyer were able to recall more information than those who only used the burglar schema, in spite of not hearing the story a second time
• Anderson and Pitchert study


  • Small sample size which is problematic for generalization
  • Possible expectancy effect as participants may have understood the hypothesis and excluded details from first recall
• There is a lot of empirical evidence that provides support for schema theory and demonstrates the impact that schemas can have on recall and encoding of information
• Biological research also supports the idea that the brain categorises input, which is in line with schema theory
• Schema theory


  • Has many practical applications across different fields of psychology
  • Concept of schema is too vague and hypothetical to be useful according to some critics
  • Schema processing cannot be directly observed so assumptions have to be made
• Despite some limitations, there is enough research to suggest schemas do affect how memory processes information, both in a positive and negative sense
• Schemas simplify reality, and help us to make sense of current experiences. Schemas are useful concepts in helping us understand how we organise our knowledge and how we retrieve information
• Schema theory is robust and has a wide range of practical applications