Download Schema Theory

What’s this picture of?
Schema Theory
Cognitive Psychology
psychlotron.org.uk
Source: Roth & Bruce (1995)
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Source: members.lycos.nl/amazingart/
psychlotron.org.uk
Source: members.lycos.nl/amazingart/
psychlotron.org.uk
• What did your mind have to do for you to ‘see’
things in the black and white patterns?
The mind takes in the impoverished sensory input
and matches it to a schema derived from past
experience. The schema is used to ‘fill in the blanks’
in the input and to give it a meaning. Your ability to
‘see’ what’s there depends on your having an
appropriate schema.
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?
Do you have a schema for a ship?
What is it?
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What if you’d never seen a ship before?
• You see this man in our school.
• Who is he?
• (Write it down)
• You see this man in
• 0ur school, who is he?
• This man is in our school. Who is he?
Which room in the house
is this?
• How do you know?
Which room of the house
is this?
Which room of the house
is this?
•Write a schema for what an
office looks like.
• You see one of these signs on a door.
• Schemas can describe how specific knowledge
is organized and stored in memory so that it
can be accessed and used when it is needed.
• If I came to your house for the first time and I
walked into your kitchen, would I know which
room I was in?
• We use schemas to help us to predict future
events based on what has happened before.
• I am going to give you instructions in a
moment.
• You will complete the task in complete silence.
French & Richards (1993)
Now read about French & Richards’ study of
schema-driven attentional errors.
• Make brief notes about the study.
• If participants had never seen Roman
numerals before, how would the results of this
experiment have been different?
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How does the way our memories work affect EWT?
Bartlett’s famous research study: ‘War of the
Ghosts’ (see course guide) supported his ‘Schema’
or ‘Reconstructive nature of Memory’ Theory:Bartlett said that when remembering we piece
together a few highlights, then fill in details based
on what we think should have happened. Our
memories working like rough notebooks rather
than video recorders.
He said we use schemata to make sense of our
world and to help us remember.
A schema is an organised package of information
that stores your knowledge about the world.
Schemas are stored in LTM.
Your schemas tell you that if you see someone
wearing a short-sleeved shirt outside then there is
unlikely to be snow on the ground. Schemas can
lead us to make assumptions which may be wrong!
Your Schema’s an example:• What is your schema for having a restaurant meal ?– What are the
most important events associated with having a restaurant meal.
• You probably said most or all of the following:
• Sitting down
• Looking at the menu
• Ordering
• Eating/drinking
• Paying the bill
• Leaving a tip
• Leaving the restaurant.
• Reconstructive memories are made by combining what you are
remembering with your knowledge of the world (Schemas)
• Schema theory indicates that prior expectations will influence our
perceptions. This means that our prejudices and stereotypes will
influence what we think we have seen and how we recall the
information.
• This can be particularly important for interpretation of eyewitness
testimony.
• So does that mean that we cannot trust our memories to be
accurate?
Read through the following words and try to remember them. I will tell you when
to write down what you remember.
Do the same with the next set.
Did you remember any words that were not there?
Most people falsely remember the word sweet as being on the first list and the
word angry as being on the second list. The words aren't there, but they are
strongly suggested by the words that are on the list. Memory is associative and
reconstructive, remembering the words candy and honey and sugar and others
that are associated with sweetness bring that word sweet to mind so strongly
that it is ‘reconstructed’ into part of the original list.
sour
nice
candy
mad
wrath
fear
honey
sugar
soda
happy
hate
fight
bitter
chocolate good
rage
hatred
temper
heart
taste
cake
mean
fury
calm
tooth
tart
pie
ire
emotion
enrage
Problems with Schemas
• RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY (BARTLET 1932) :- People have
expectations, assumptions or schemas (our understanding of the way things
are based mainly on previous experience) This can lead to us expecting
certain things and then ‘filling in the gaps’ when things don’t quite fit.
• STEREOTYPES have an effect on what we expect, and therefore what we
remember.
Look at the
picture on
the right.
Study it
carefully.
“Whose hand held the knife?”
(Allport
& Postman, 1947) found that most
people wrongly remembered the black man with
the knife.
What problems can you see
with this research?