Chapter 8 General Knowledge

Schemas and Scripts schema—generalized knowledge about a situation, an event, or a person Schema theories are especially helpful when psychologists try to explain how people process complex situations and events.

Schemas and Scripts Background on Schemas and Scripts Schema theories propose that people encode "generic" information about a situation, then use this information to understand and remember new examples of the schema. "This is just like what happened when . . ."

Schemas and Scripts Background on Schemas and Scripts script—simple, well-structured sequence of events restaurant script life scripts

Schemas and Scripts Background on Schemas and Scripts Identifying the Script in Advance Scripts are recalled more accurately if identified in advance. Demonstration 8.4: Trafimow & Wyer (1993) scripts with irrelevant details script-identifying event either first or last recall events

Schemas and Scripts Background on Schemas and Scripts Identifying the Script in Advance Demonstration 8.4—Trafimow & Wyer (1993) (continued) Event recall was higher when the script- identifying event was presented first, rather than last. Events in a sequence are much more memorable if you understand—from the very beginning—that these events are all part of a standard script.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection Demonstration 8.5: Brewer and Treyens (1981) recall objects from an office waiting room highly likely to recall objects consistent with "office schema" "remembered" items that were not in the room, but were consistent with "office schema"

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection Neuschatz and coauthors (2002) "lecture schema" People are more likely to recall schema-inconsistent material when that material is vivid or surprising.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection Davidson (1994) read stories describing well-known schemas especially likely to recall schema-inconsistent events that interrupted the normal, expected story

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection General Conclusions about Schemas and Memory Selection If the information describes a minor event—and time is limited—people tend to remember information accurately when it is consistent with a schema (e.g., the desk and the chair in the ‘‘office’’).

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection General Conclusions about Schemas and Memory Selection If the information describes a minor event—and time is limited—people do not remember information that is inconsistent with the schema (e.g., the wine bottle and the picnic basket).

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection General Conclusions about Schemas and Memory Selection People seldom create a completely false memory for a lengthy event that did not occur (e.g., the lecturer did not dance across the room).

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Selection General Conclusions about Schemas and Memory Selection When the information describes a major event that is inconsistent with the standard schema, people are likely to remember that event (e.g., the child who crashes into Sarah).

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Boundary Extension Demonstration 8.6 boundary extension—our tendency to remember having viewed a greater portion of a scene than was actually shown

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Boundary Extension Intraub and colleagues see photo then draw replica of photo Participants consistently produced a sketch that extended the boundaries beyond the view presented in the original photo. activate a perceptual schema

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Boundary Extension relevance in eyewitness testimony situations

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction abstraction—a memory process that stores the meaning of a message but not the exact words verbatim memory—word-for-word recall

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Constructive Approach Bransford and Franks (1971) listen to sentences from several different stories recognition test including new items People were convinced that they had seen these new items before (false alarm).

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Constructive Approach Bransford and Franks (1971) (continued) False alarms were particularly likely for complex sentences consistent with the original schema. False alarms were unlikely for sentences violating the meaning of the earlier sentences.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Constructive Approach constructive model of memory—People integrate information from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas; later, they cannot untangle the constructed information from the verbatim sentences.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Pragmatic Approach pragmatic view of memory—people pay attention to the aspect of a message that is most relevant to their current goals People know that they usually need to accurately recall the gist of a sentence. They also know that they usually do not need to remember the specific wording of the sentences.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Pragmatic Approach However, in those cases where they do need to pay attention to the specific wording, then they know that their verbatim memory needs to be highly accurate.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Pragmatic Approach Murphy and Shapiro (1994)—Insult Study read letters from "Samantha" to cousin or boyfriend bland vs. sarcastic comments recognition test on original, paraphrased, or irrelevant sentences

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Pragmatic Approach Murphy and Shapiro (1994)—Insult Study Correct recognition was higher for sentences from the sarcastic condition than for sentences in the bland condition. more false alarms for paraphrases of bland sentences than sarcastic sentences more accurate verbatim memory for the sarcastic version than for the bland version

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Abstraction The Current Status of Schemas and Memory Abstraction two compatible approaches In many cases we integrate information into large schemas. In some cases we know that specific words matter and pay close attention to precise wording.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration memory integration—background knowledge encourages people to take in new information in a schema-consistent fashion People may remember schema-consistent information, even though it was not part of the original stimulus material. Schemas do not always operate. Factors such as delay before testing and task complexity influence the use of schemas.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration The Classic Research on Memory Integration Bartlett (1932) memory as the complex interaction between the participants' prior knowledge and the material presented individual's unique interests and personal background often shape the contents of memory

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration The Classic Research on Memory Integration "The War of the Ghosts" study Native American story read and recalled by British students Participants tended to omit material that didn't make sense from their own viewpoint

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration The Classic Research on Memory Integration "The War of the Ghosts" study Participants tended to: (continued) shape the story into a more familiar framework borrow more heavily from their previous knowledge as time passed before additional recall

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration The Classic Research on Memory Integration Schemas can influence our inferences when we are reading ambiguous or unclear material. When we have the correct background knowledge, it is generally useful.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes gender stereotypes—widely shared sets of beliefs about the characteristics of females and males When people know someone's gender, they often draw conclusions about that individual's personal characteristics.

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Explicit Memory Task Dunning and Sherman (1997) read sentences followed by recognition- memory test "new" sentences consistent or inconsistent with gender stereotypes

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Explicit Memory Task Dunning and Sherman (1997) (continued) more likely to mistakenly "remember" a new sentence as "old" when it was consistent with a gender stereotype

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Implicit Memory Tasks Using neuroscience techniques to assess gender stereotypes Osterhout, Bersick and McLaughlin (1997) ERP technique stereotype-consistent sentences vs. stereotype-inconsistent sentences

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Implicit Memory Tasks Using neuroscience techniques to assess gender stereotypes Osterhout, Bersick and McLaughlin (1997) (continued) change in ERPs for stereotype-inconsistent words, but not for stereotype-consistent words

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Implicit Memory Tasks Using the Implicit Association Test to assess gender stereotypes Nosek, Banaji, and Greenwald (2002) Implicit Association Test (IAT)—based on the principle that people can mentally pair two related words together much more easily than they can pair two unrelated words

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Implicit Memory Tasks Using the Implicit Association Test to assess gender stereotypes Nosek, Banaji, and Greenwald (2002) (continued) stereotype-consistent pairings (male/math vs. female/arts) stereotype-inconsistent pairings (female/math vs. male/arts)

Schemas and Scripts Schemas and Memory Integration Research on Memory Integration Based on Gender Stereotypes Implicit Memory Tasks Using the Implicit Association Test to assess gender stereotypes Nosek, Banaji, and Greenwald (2002) (continued) Participants responded significantly faster to the stereotype-consistent parings than to the stereotype-inconsistent pairings.

Schemas and Scripts Individual Differences: Country of Residence and Gender Stereotypes Nosek and coauthors (2009) Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMS) 8th grade females and males in 34 different countries compare "male advantage" scores on TIMS test with IAT measure of gender stereotyping

Schemas and Scripts Individual Differences: Country of Residence and Gender Stereotypes Nosek and coauthors (2009) Countries with the highest measures of gender stereotyping were also more likely to be the countries were males performed better than females in both math and science.

Schemas and Scripts Conclusions About Schemas Schemas often influence our cognitive processes: in the initial selection of material in remembering visual scenes in abstraction in the final process of integration

Schemas and Scripts Conclusions About Schemas However: We often select material for memory that is not consistent with our schemas. We may sometimes remember that we saw only a portion of an object, rather than the complete object.

Schemas and Scripts Conclusions About Schemas However: We frequently recall the exact words of a passage as it was originally, rather than storing an abstract memory. We may keep the elements in memory isolated from each other, rather than integrating these elements together.

Schemas and Scripts Conclusions About Schemas In summary, both schemas (top-down processing) and unique features of each stimulus (bottom-up information) influence memory.