1. SCHEMAS, MEMORY AND THEIR RELIABILITY
IB Psychology LAJM

2. REVIEW What were meant by schemas?
What could be examples of different schemas?
How do schemas influence our behaviour?

3. Schema theory Schemas Mental representations of knowledge
Patterns of knowledge concerning self and/or environment. Networks of knowledge, beliefs and expectations about particular aspects of the world. Reality is perceived and information is processed through schemas.

4. Schema theory ENVIRONMENT CYCLE OF PERCEPTION SCHEMA PERCEPTION
SELECTS
TARGETS
CHANGES
CYCLE OF PERCEPTION
Schemas are in constant change. Ulric Neisser’s cycle of perception explains how. Constant interaction with the environment through perception. New information is combined with the old (assimilation) or new information modifies existing schemas (accommodation).
DIRECTS
SCHEMA
PERCEPTION

10. Schema theory Pattern recognition
Matching the current sensory input to schemas in memory
Pattern recognition is closely linked to the cycle of perception.

11. Schema theory TOP-DOWN PROCESSING BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING
Bottom-up processing: information proceeds from sensory organs to higher levels in the brain. Top-down processing: higher levels of the brain primes lower parts of the brain to process selected features of sensory input => schemas guide perception => attention.

12. Schema theory
Perception is interaction between the received information from the environment and schemas in the mind
an interpretation of the sensory input
The world is not perceived as it is. The world is perceived and shaped through schemas. We recognize patterns through schemas. Perception produces meaningful experience of the world. Perception contains things that are not present in the stimuli.

15. SCHEMA PROCESSING CAN INFLUENCE MEMORY AT ALL STAGES
Schema theory
THREE MAIN STAGES IN MEMORY PROCESSES
ENCODING
STORAGE
RETRIEVAL
Encoding: put into memory; transforming sensory information into meaningful memory. Storage: maintain in memory; creating a biological trace in of encoded information which can either be consolidated or lost. Retrieval: recover from memory; using the stored information.
SCHEMA PROCESSING CAN INFLUENCE MEMORY AT ALL STAGES

16. TASK
Read Crane 72
How Anderson and Pichert (1978) studied schema processing and it’s relation to memory functions?

17. Schema theory Brewer & Treyens (1981)
Participants were asked to wait 35 seconds in an office room
After the waiting period, participants were taken into another room and were asked to write down everything they could remember from the office room
The aim of the study was to see whether a stereotypical schema of an office would affect memory (recall) of an office. 

18. Schema theory Participants recalled things from a typical office
They did not recall the wine bottle and the picnic basket
Participants schema of an office influenced their memory of it
SKULL
Typical office things e.g. desk, typewriter and bulletin board were recalled well. However, some participants remembered things that were not present in the experiment office e.g. books. Participants did not recall the wine and picnic basket because it is not part of their “typical office” schema. Unusual items like the skull resulted in better memory functions than the schema theory predicted.

19. TASK What are the pros and the cons of schemas?
How do they facilitate and/or complicate the way we process information and guide our behaviour?

20. Schema theory Strengths Weaknesses
Lots of empirical evidence to support the theory
Helps us to understand human information processing
Weaknesses
Schemas cannot be observed directly
The way how schemas are formed cannot be tested

21. Models of memory MULTI-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY
Humans have three memory systems: (1) Sensory memory, (2) Short-term memory and (3) Long-term memory. Systems differ in: (1) duration, (2) capacity, (3) encoding (modality) and (4) neurophysiological functioning.

22. GROUP WORK Psychology class is divided into three research groups
Eventually these groups are split in half for both TOK groups
The groups teach the basics of human memory to other TOK students
GROUP 1: Sensory memory
GROUP 2: Short-term memory
GROUP 3: Long-term memory
USE THE TEACHER’S
HANDOUT

23. REVIEW
What was meant by:
synapse?
neuroplasticity?

24. Biological base of memory
Long-term potentiation
Strengthening of synapses based on frequent activation
Produces a long-lasting increase in information transmission between neurons

25. TASK Watch the following video on long-term potentiation
If neural connections are not used, they become weaker. Long-term depression (LTD) => ”Use it or lose it”

26. TASK
Watch the following National Geographic video on London taxi drivers

27. Biological base of memory
London taxi drivers (Maguire et al., 2000)
Structural MRIs of London taxi drivers and controls were analysed (16 male drivers, 50 matched controls)
The taxi drivers had different hippocampus structure than the controls

28. Differences in hippocampus structure were found between the taxi drivers and controls. The differences were larger the longer a participant had worked as a taxi driver. The “balance” of parts of the HC were different: posterior parts were bigger and anterior parts were smaller than in controls. These differences were more pronounced for cabbies who had worked longer.

29. TASK Evaluate the study on London taxi drivers
What are its strengths and limitations?
Not an experimental study: simply a comparison between groups. But: structural differences likely to be caused by working as a taxi driver because the extent of differences increased with time working as a cabbie. Later studies measured hippocampus volume before, during and after acquiring “the Knowledge”. Sample: quite a small number of taxi drivers (16), only male participants. Findings are in line with the assumption that hippocampus is involved in spatial navigation and memory processing

30. Biological base of memory
Comparison to bus drivers (Maguire et al., 2006)
Bus and taxi drivers had differences in hippocampi and cognitive functions
Show the abstract!

31. Biological base of memory
Amnesia
General term for memory dysfunctions caused by brain damage
Anterograde amnesia
Failure to store memories after the trauma
Retrograde amnesia
Failure to recall memories before the trauma

32. Biological base of memory

33. TASK Watch the following video on the case of Clive Wearing
What brain parts are probably damaged in Clive’s case?

34. TASK
Read Crane 78–79
Study the cases of Clive Wearing and HM

35. Biological base of memory
Dementia
General term for illnesses where mental capacities are deteriorated
Alzheimer’s disease
Most common form of dementia where semantic and episodic memories are decreased

36. Reliability of memory Memory is: Memory is NOT exact an active process
reconstructive in nature
Memory is NOT exact
It is distorted by existing schemas
Each of us reconstructs our memories to conform to our personal beliefs about the world. Schemas influence the way we encode, storage and retrieve information. Every time we remember something, the memory is different each time.

37. TASK
Read Crane 82–83
How did Bartlett studied the reliability of memory and its reconstructive nature in 1932?
Picture is an example of serial reproduction.

38. Reliability of memory Effort after meaning
Tendency to fit what we remember with what we already know and understand about the world
Effort after meaning: the attempt to match unfamiliar ideas into a familiar framework => we change unfamiliar things to familiar things in order fit them better to to existing schemas. Picture is an example of serial reproduction.

39. Reliability of memory Eyewitness testimonies (Loftus & Palmer, 1974)
Experiment 1:
Participants memory processes were influenced by leading questions
How did the change of one word influence participants recollection of a traffic accident film?
45 students formed an opportunity sample. After watching the film participants were asked to describe what had happened as if they were eyewitnesses. The question was that how fast were cars going when they hit each other.

40. Reliability of memory Experiment 2:
Participants were shown a film of a car accident
Week after the the film the participants were asked a question ”Did you see any broken glass?”
YES 7/50
YES 16/50
150 students were participants. They were divided into three groups. All saw a film of a car accident. First group had the word ”smashed” describing the accident. Second group had ”hit”. Third group was control with no specific questions. Week after seeing the film, the participants just needed to answer yes or no to the question.

41. Reliability of memory False memories
Recalling an event that never happened and believing it to be true
Suggestion, encouragement and imagination can create false memories
Loftus & Pickrell, Hyman & Portland, Maxoni & Memon, Ceci et al, Principe et al., 2010.

42. Reliability of memory Source confusion
Information is acquired from several sources
We reconstruct our memories as meaningful experiences, but confuse the sources
Lindsay, Can partially explain false memories. Memory from a film transforms into a memory from real-life.

43. Reliability of memory Social pressure
A pressured person may come up with a false memory
Real memory can turn into imagination under pressure
Loftus, McNally, Pendergrast, Brainerd & Reyna, 2005.

44. TASK
Watch the following TED talk by Elizabeth Loftus on reliability of memory

45. TASK Is human memory reliable? On what basis it is?
On what basis it is not?
Can you trust your memory?

46. Sources
Maguire et al. (2000). Navigation related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Retreived from
Maguire et al. (2006). London taxi drivers and bus drivers: a structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis. Retreived from

47. Picture sources
Milk carton < Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Schema of sport cars < Accessed 11th of November 2015.
Old-young woman < Accessed 15th of November 2015.
Jesus figure < Accessed 15th of November 2015.
Dog in a garden < Accessed 15th of November 2015.
Beethoven Persoona 3 – Opettajan materiaali

48. Picture sources
Face in trees < Accessed 27th of November 2017.
Brain < Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Eye drawing < Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Eye < Accessed 24th of November 2015.
Illusions 1 and 2 < Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Psychology lab < Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Brewer & Treyens office < > Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Information < Accessed 23rd of November 2017.
Multi-store model of memory < Accessed 27th of November 2017.
London taxi 1 < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
Hippocampus < > Accessed 30th of November 2017.
London taxi drivers study < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
London taxi 2 < Accessed 30th of November 2017.

49. Picture sources
London bus < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
Paper head < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
Healthy brain and amnesic brain < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
Clive Wearing < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
HM brain and normal brain < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
Normal brain and Alzheimer brain < Accessed 24th of November 2015.
Memory wheel head < Accessed 24th of November 2015.
Bartlett serial reproduction figures 1 < Accessed 27th of November 2017.
Bartlett serial reproduction figures 2 < Accessed 27th of November 2017.
Loftus & Palmer car pictures and statistics< Accessed 27th of November 2017.

50. Picture sources
False memory < Accessed 28th of November 2017.
Man with files < Accessed 28th of November 2017.
Social pressure < Accessed 28th of November 2017.
Elizabeth Loftus < Accessed 30th of November 2017.
Dali < Accessed 25th of November 2015.