Download Schema Theory

The Cognitive Level of Analysis
Intro
&
Schema
Theory
Levels of
Analysis
The IB syllabus:
Questions to check your understanding:
1. In what decade did the cognitive revolution take place?
2. What do cognitive psychologist believe to guide our
behavior?
3. What have researchers in this area been studying
recently?
4. What are some of the topics that cognitive psychologists
study?
5. Cognitive psychologists are working more closely with
researchers from which LOA?
6. What does approaching behaviors from several LOAs
allow us to do?
The IB syllabus
Essential questions
• How does our mind organize data?
• How do cultural, social, and biological factors
influence our memory?
• To what extent are our memories reliable?
• How do psychologists study memory?
• What affects our emotions?
Learning Plan
Approximate times
•
The background, principles of the Cognitive LOA (2 lessons)
•
Schema theory (1 week)
•
Models of memory (2 weeks)
•
Biological factors & cognitive processes (memory, amnesia & serotonin) (1 week)
•
Culture & cognitive processes (1 week)
•
Reliability of cognitive processes - eyewitness testimony (2 weeks)
•
Interaction of cognitive and biological factors in emotion (1 week)
•
A theory of how emotion effects memory (2 week)
•
General Learning Outcomes Workshop: Principles/ Methodology & Ethics (1 week)
The History of the Cognitive LOA
• Historically – two philosophical schools of thought:
• Empiricism –sensory experience (concrete, hands on
experience is the basis of all knowledge)
• Rationalism – knowledge gained by exercising the mind –
thinking, reasoning and using logic.
• Contemporary theory from the cognitive LOA has adopted
both rationalist and empiricist thinking – a combination of
both
Background of the Cognitive LOA:
Developments during WWII(1940s)
• WWII was crucial in the development of cognitive psychology
• The allies were working on breaking enemy codes and reformulating
this information into their encrypted information of their own.
• The developed crash courses in German, Japanese and Italian – so we
had to know how we humans process information.
• Development of automatic pilot technology and weapons radar and
sonar required the development of ‘human factors in engineering’ –
an understanding of how human thought processes work
• The development of computers allowed for the development of a
‘computer metaphor’ for the functioning of the human mind –
Cognitive psychologists believe that cognition can be understood in
these terms – on the most basic level cognition operates through:
Inputs, Processes & Outputs
Background of the Cognitive LOA
Developments after WWII
• After the WWII – Bell Telephone Labs developed information theory as
engineers looked at the structures, processes and mechanisms which
determine what happens to information from the time it is received to the time
it is acted upon
• The big question was – could this be applied to human beings?
• At a Conference on information theory in MIT in 1956 many papers were given
on Cognitive psychology – Chomsky was there and argued that we had innate
‘cognitive maps’ which enable the acquisition of language – the cognitive map
is a unique pre arranged system of biological rules that govern language
development. I.e. the brain was genetically programmed to generate language
• Also George A. Miller (1956) the single most effective leader in the
emergence of cognitive psychology – presented influential article ‘the magical
number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing
information’ (1956) (chunking)
• More recently (1980s onwards) CAT, MRI– let us examine the structure of the
brain & fMRI and PET – allow use to examine the images of the brain in action. Its
been a great leap forward – we can empirically study the dynamics between
internal mental stimuli and external stimuli. The word ‘revolution’ is an
understatement in the impact this has had – development of Cognitive
Neuroscience – linking structure with function
Principles that define the cognitive level of
analysis:
1. Mental representations guide behaviour.
2. Mental processes can and should be scientifically
investigated.
3. Models of psychological functions can be proposed.
4. Cognitive processes actively organize and manipulate
information that we receive - humans are not passive
responders to their environment. (Soft determinism.)
5. Cognitive processes are influenced by cultural factors.
Cognitive processes: Schema Theory
•
IB Syllabus Says: Evaluate schema theory with
reference to research studies.
Principles Demonstrated:
• Mental representations guide behaviour;
• Mental processes can be scientifically investigated.
• Cognitive processes actively organize and
manipulate information that we receive
• Cognitive processes are influenced by cultural
factors.
Schema: Definition
• A cluster of inter-related concepts that tell us
about how things function in the world
• e.g. a schema about television would tell us
about how they work and what sort of
programmes they are likely to display
(Flanagan, 2003)
Piaget & Schema Theory
• Developmental Psychologist Jean Piaget
(1896-1980) coined the term ‘schema’
• Piaget was interested in how children's
thinking or ‘cognition’ develops, and he
developed an influential stage theory of
cognitive development to explain how a
child's thinking becomes more complex over
time
Piaget & Schema Theory
• Piaget (1926) noted that all babies were born with similar
biological ‘equipment’ or ‘structures’. E.g. the brain, the senses &
reflexes.
• The infant is born with a set of reflexes (e.g. sucking and grasping)
and innate schema (e.g. recognition of faces)
• Piaget called the psychological structures that contain this
knowledge ‘schemas’.
• An example of an innate schema would be a mental
representation of a human face – Fantz (1961) presented
evidence that humans are born with an innate ability to recognize
faces….
Fantz (1961) Study of face recognition in
infants (innate schemas)
•
Aim:
To see whether face recognition was innate in infants
•
Procedures:
- Fantz set up a display board above the baby to which were attached two pictures, On one
was a bulls-eye and on the other was the sketch of a human face. Then, from behind the
board, invisible to the baby, he peeked through a hole to watch what the baby looked at.
•
Findings & Conclusions
"a two-month old baby looked twice as much at the human face as it did at the bulls-eye.“
This suggested that human babies have some powers of pattern and form selection. - they
show a preference for human faces.
•
Evaluation
- Groundbreaking study – showing the innate nature of some schemas
- Makes evolutionary sense – face recognition aids survival and is important for
communication
-Supported by further research: Hunt (1993) found that at three months we can tell the
difference between members of their family
Development of Schemas
• From birth onwards, the infants schemas
develop as a result of interactions with the
environment.
• New experiences lead to new schemas being
developed. E.g. Infants learn to separate faces
of people they know (Hunt, 1993)
Development of Schemas
• Piaget believed that schemas become more complex through a process of:
• Assimilation: The process of fitting new information & experiences into
existing schemas
• Accommodation: The process of changing the existing schemas when new
information cannot be assimilated.
• E.g. a child may have a schema of a dog having ‘four legs, fur & a wet nose’
– every new instance of a creature with the same characteristics is
assimilated into this schema.
• However, when the child sees a cat, this cannot be assimilated by the
existing schema, so instead the child's schema must alter to accommodate
new information and a new schema is formed
Development of Schemas
• The driving force behind these changes or ‘adaptation’ is
the principle of ‘equilibration’.
• The intellect strives to maintain ‘equilibrium’ or a sense of
balance. If an experience cannot be ‘assimilated’ into
existing schemas then there is a state of imbalance.
• Cognitive development is a result of the adaptation
between an individuals existing schemas and
environmental demands for change, such as experiences
that don’t fit existing schema
Evaluation of Piaget’s schema theory
• Very influential, and coined the term ‘schema’ & inspired a
lot of further research (e.g. Bartlett)
• Flawed methodology in the cognitive tasks he gave children
to perform to develop his theory of cognitive development
– this meant that he underestimated the rate at which
children develop
• His research can also be criticized as lacking in ecological
validity
• His theory could be seen as overly simplistic, the influence
of culture & gender is largely ignored.
Questions to check your understanding
1. Give a definition of a schema
2. What type of psychologist is Jean Piaget, and what was he
interested in studying?
3. What are the aims, procedure, findings & conclusion of
Fantz (1961) study?
4. Make 2 evaluative points that relate to Fantz (1961) study
5. Using a new example, describe the two processes by which
schemas develop?
6. What is the driving force behind changes in schemas?
7. Make two general evaluative points which relate to Piaget’s
schema theory
Mini presentations
In groups – you will present on your section of the packet, after going
over your section, prepare 5 questions to ask the class
• Group 1: Memory & Bartlett / 6 evaluative questions
• Group 2: Brewer & Trayens (1981) study
• Group 3: Bransford & Johnson (1973) & activity
• Group 4: General evaluative points
We All take notes as we go along on the yellow sheet
Schemas & Memory Processes
Schema theory has been used to explain memory
processes. Cognitive Psychologists divide memory into 3
main stages:
Encoding: transforming sensory information into a
meaningful memory
Storage: Crating a biological trace of the encoded
information in memory, which is either consolidated or
lost
Retrieval: using the stored information
Bartlett (1932) study of reconstructive
memory
• Bartlett’s (1932) Research into Schemas
• According to Bartlett schemas have a major
influence on the way we encode, store and
retrieve memories.
• This influence is demonstrated in his classic
study, the ‘war of the ghosts’
Bartlett's (1932)study of reconstructive
memory
• Try to recall the war of the ghosts story
•
•
•
•
Aims
Procedures
Findings & Conclusion
Evaluation
• lets go through the study and evaluate using MECG and
the 6 key questions
• See your key study sheets on this
Six questions to ask when evaluating
research
1. Is the study based on a representative group of
people (sample)?
2. Was the study conducted in a laboratory or in a
natural setting?
3. Where what the participants where asked to do far
from real life?
4. Are the findings of the study supported by the
findings of other studies?
5. Do the findings have a practical relevance?
6. Ethical considerations
Brewer and Treyens (1981) the effect of
schemas on visual memory
Aim: Investigate the effects of schemas on visual memory
Procedures: 30 participants, one at a time were asked to wait in a room for 35 seconds. The
room was designed to look like an office and contained 61 objects. Some objects were
compatible with an ‘office’ schema, such as a desk, calendar and typewriter, but others were
not – such as a skull, a brick and a pair of pliers.
After having been in the room, participants were given an unexpected recall test.
Findings and conclusions: Participants were more likely to recall typical office items, i.e. items
with high schema expectancy.
They were also successful at recalling in incompatible items such as the brick , but eight
participants recalled the really bizarre item – the skull
Most errors in recall were substitutions – PPs falsely recall the presence of items such as books,
pens and a telephone, which have a high schema expectancy but were not present in the
room.
Other errors involved the wrong placement of items e.g. the note pad was ‘remembered’ as
being on the desk, rather than on the chair
Findings suggest that PPs use schemas to ensure rapid encoding of visual information available
to the during their 35 seconds in the room, and at the retrieval stage, recall was influenced
by schema so that typical items were recalled, event though they were not actually present.
Evaluation: Low generizability, Low Ecological Validity
Activity: see video
Bransford and Johnson (1973) the role of
context in reading comprehension & recall
Aim: To examine the influence of context on the recall and
comprehension of a reading passage
Procedures: They constructed some reading passages that would be
difficult to understand in the absence of context. They then
compared recall performance between a group of participants
who had been supplied with contextual information (such as
pictures) and a group who had not received this additional
information
Findings & Conclusions: Bransford and Johnson found that recall is
significantly better for the group that is given contextual
information than for the group that had simply read the passage,
showing that without the appropriate schema, accurate recall is
more difficult
Evaluation
Cultural differences – would the same results be found in different
cultures? Low ecological validly. However, the study does offer
support for Bartlett's (1932) study.
General Evaluation of Schema Theory
1. There is lots of research to support the idea that schemas affect cognitive processes such as
memory. The theory seems quite useful for understanding how people categorize
information, interpret stories and make inferences.
2. Schema theory has also contributed to our understanding how cognition develops in
children (Piaget) and also how memories can become distorted. Furthermore, social
psychologists often refer to ‘social schemas when they are trying to explain stereotyping and
prejudice.
3. Schema theory helps to understand cultural and gender differences, since different genders
& cultures may have different schemas which influence the way they interpret the world.
4. However, there are some methodological flaws with the research, for example Bartlett's
choice of material meant that the stories he chose folk tales that may not have been
meaningful to other people, but he had no objective measure of ‘meaningfulness’. However,
his initial findings have been supported by later research by Brewer and Treyens (1981) &
Bransford and Johnson (1973).
5. It is important to note that much of the research can be criticized for have low ecological
validity.
6. Cohen (1993) states that schema theory is rather vague and the theory fails to offer detailed
explanations of how the schemas are acquired in the first place. Cohen believes the theory is
overly simplistic (reductionist) and does not account for complexity of human cognition
7. However, recent biological research by Caramazza (2009) found that from the visual cortex
information about living and non-living objects is shuttled to different parts of the brain so
as to trigger appropriate reactions – even in blind participants – so some schemas appear to
be connected to localized areas of the brain
Questions to check your understanding
1. What are the three main stages of memory?
2. What are the aims, procedures and findings of Bartlett's (1932) study
of reconstructive memory?
3. What method was used by Bartlett in his study?
4. What are the strengths and limitations of Bartlett's study?
5. Outline the aims, findings and conclusion of Brewer and Treyens
(1981) the effect of schemas of visual memory
6. What are some of the limitations of Brewer and Treyens study?
7. What did Bransford and Johnson (1973) find about the role of context
in schema development
8. Give three general evaluative points about schema theory
9. What did Caramazza (2009) find about schema and localized
functions of the brain?