3.2 Evaluate Schema Theory

3.2 Evaluate Schema Theory A mental representation of knowledge stored in the brain

Thursday, Oct 25 • War of the Ghosts • Read the story.

Bartlett, 1932 “The War of the Ghosts” • He suggests that schemas are active recognition devices representing an effort after meaning. • They help people make sense of the world, make predictions about it and what to expect and provide guidance on how to behave

Aim to investigate whether people’s memory for a story is affected by previous knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory is reconstructive • Procedure – asked British subjects to hear a story and reproduce it after a short time and then over months or years. It was an unfamiliar Native American legend called “The War of the Ghosts.” • Results – Participants remembered the main idea of the story but changed details that fit in with their cultural expectations Story became shorter. Remembering is an active process. Memories are not copies but reconstructions

Summarize the story with as much detail as you can!Compare yours with the original

Evaluation • Confirms schema theory and reconstructive memory • Performed in a laboratory so questions about ecological validity • Participants did not receive standardized instructions. • Memory distortions may be due to participants guessing (demand characteristics) • One of the most important studies on memory

How does schema work? • It influences how organize, store and retrieve information • There are different types of schema • Self schema – individual’s cognitive framework for knowledge about him/herself • Event schema – What is expected to happen in a given setting • Role schema- organized sets of expectations about how people are supposed to act in a given situation • Motor schema – mental organization of information providing instructions for acting • An experiment on place schema

Brewer and Treyens (1981) • Aim – to investigate whether people’s memory for objects in a room is influenced by existing schemas about what to expect in an office. • Procedure – 30 university students “visit” a room that has been preinventoried with items usual for that room and others that are not. After waiting for some time, they were asked to write down everything they could remember from the room. • Results – most reported schematic objects

Some reported things that would be expected, but were not present • Many recalled unexpected objects, but very unusual objects resulted in better recall Evaluation: • The study confirms schema theory (and reconstructive memory), but controlled lab experiment so questions of ecological validity • Study used deception but they were debriefed afterwards and not harmed. • There is sample bias University students were used so it may be difficult to generalize the results.

So How did our Schema Experiment Compare? Media Classroom Inventory Schema results * = not present

This table represents means, standard deviations, and valid N (some participants forms were incomplete) for a random sampling of 25 students. Of the 18 items listed on the experimental sheet, 6 items were actually present in the office and 8 of the items were not. The list included some common items and not common work room items such as the wall clock and the dead cockroach. The items ranged from a high positive confidence rating of +2.71for the scotch tape dispenser (which wasn’t there!) and a low of -2.21 for the dead cockroach which wasn’t there. • It is clear that participants expected to see certain items, such as a scotch tape dispenser, a smart board, and a wall clock. Or maybe those items were most obvious! This shows that our prior expectations can influence what we think we see and experience. • Likewise, items that are not typically found in a classroom are not likely to be identified were not listed (cockroach) • The standard deviation with the lowest numbers show the most confidence the majority of the class had. The larger numbers show the greater discrepancy • Write about a time in your life when expectations have influenced the way you viewed some event.

3.2 Evaluate Schema Theory