Schema Theory 3.1

Self-representation – an idea of who you are and how you look The same you have for others, objects, animals, the world… Mental representations are organized in categories stored in our memory We are able to manipulate mental representations to think of other situations and about the future – what might happen… (in books, films, make plans, calculate risks) What we expect to happen are pre-stored mental representations!

Schema theory (theory about information processing) “An active organisation of past reactions or past experiences” Barlett 1932 Generally: schema is a stored framework or body of knowledge about some topic (aka script or a cognitive structure) When we encounter new material, we try to relate the material to something we already know to existing schemata. If the material does not match an existing schema, we tend to alter the material to make it fit.

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 can be organized in infinite ways

Activity when I say… what do you see? Make your our schema (in any structure you would like/prefer)

Rate the comprehensibility of this passage (1-7) The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange items into different groups. Of course one pile might be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then, one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life

Rate the comprehensibility of this passage (1-7) Washing Clothes The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange items into different groups. Of course one pile might be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then, one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. The n they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.

What does schemas do? They guide our behaviour They predict likely happenings They help us to make sense of current experience They allow us to form expectations about situations, the world and people They simplify reality They organise our knowledge and assist recall

Schema Due to this theory – recall is not a true, exact recall or reproduction of the original material. Instead, it is a reconstruction based on elements from the original story and on our existing schemata. (picture question)

What did you remember? Chair? Desk? Skull? Wine bottle? Coffee pot? Wine basket? Books? Typewriter?

Brewer & Treyens (1981) Individual participants were asked to wait in an office. After 35 seconds, participants were taken to another room where they were asked to recall everything in the room in which they had been waiting. People showed a strong tendency to recall objects consistent with a typical “office schema”. Such as desk, chair, books Few people remembered items inconsistent with a typical “office schema” such as the skull

Two more supporting studies Darley and Gross 1983: Schema processing in the social world Lab experiment Video of a girl playing in a poor or rich environment Then a video of the same girl taking an intelligence test Asked to judge the future of the girls –

Darley and Gross 1983 They all said that the rich girl would do well and poor girl would do less well. Demonstrates that participants probably have pre-stored schemas of what it means to be poor/rich

Schema theory and memory processes Encoding: transforming sensory information into a meaningful memory Storage: encoded information in memory – lost or consolidated Retrieval: use the stored information Schema processing can affect memory at all stages! Read the research by Anderson & Pichert (1978) on p. 72 and explain how that research shows how schema affect all stages.

Evaluation of schema theory + A lot of research support the schema theory, that it affects cognitive processes such as memory (Bartlett and Anderson & Pichert 1978) + Has contributed to an understanding of memory distortions as well as social cognitions - Limitations: not clear on how schemas are acquired in the first place and how they actually influence cognitive processes - Therefore Too vague to use according to Cohen 1993 See Handout “Evaluation of Schema theory “

Last study: Bartlett’s The war of the ghosts which we will come back to later in this chapter