Cognitive Level Of Analysis Long Answer Question Outline

Evaluate Schema Theory With Reference To Research Studies:

Introduction
Define schema
 Schemas are cognitive structures that organize knowledge stored in our
memory.
 Schemas are used to organize our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide our
behavior, to predict likely happenings and to help us to make sense of
current experiences (Barlett 1932).

Types of schemas
 Scripts provide information about the sequence of events that occur in
particular contexts.
 Self-schemas organize information we have about ourselves.
 Social schemas represent information about groups of people.

Define schema theory

 Schema theory predicts that we interpret our experiences by using
relevant social and textual schemas.

Expand on schema theory Effects

 Existing knowledge stored in our memory are organized in the form of
schemas.
 Schemas affects the way we interpret new information and events and
how we store it in our memory.
 It is not possible to see how knowledge is processed and stored in the
brain, but the concept of schema theory helps psychologists understand
and discuss what cannot be seen.
 Schema theory can describe how specific knowledge is organized and
stored in memory so that it can be retrieved.

Body
Supporting Studies

• Bartlett – “War of the Ghosts” (1932)

• Anderson & Pichert (1978)
• Brewer & Treyens – “picnic basket” (1981)
•
Supporting Study 1: Bartlett (1932) – “War of the Ghost”
Introduce Study/Signpost:
• A significant researcher into schemas, Bartlett (1932) introduced the idea of
schemas in his study entitled “The War of the Ghost.”
Aim:

• Bartlett aimed to determine how social and cultural factors influence schemas and
hence can lead to memory distortions.
Method:

• Participants used were of an English background.

• Were asked to read “The War of the Ghosts” – a Native American folk tale.
• Tested their memory of the story using serial reproduction and repeated
reproduction, where they were asked to recall it six or seven times over
various retention intervals.
◦ Serial reproduction: the first participant reading the story reproduces it on
paper, which is then read by a second participant who reproduces the
first participant’s reproduction, and so on until it is reproduced by six or
seven different participants.
◦ Repeated reproduction: the same participant reproduces the story six or
seven times from their own previous reproductions. Their reproductions
occur between time intervals from 15 minutes to as long as several
years.

Results:

• Both methods lead to similar results.

• As the number of reproductions increased, the story became shorter and there
were more changes to the story.
◦ For example, ‘hunting seals’ changed into ‘fishing’ and ‘canoes’ became
‘boats’.
• These changes show the alteration of culturally unfamiliar things into what the
English participants were culturally familiar with,
• This makes the story more understandable according to the participants’
experiences and cultural background (schemas).
• He found that recalled stories were distorted and altered in various ways making it
more conventional and acceptable to their own cultural perspective
(rationalization).

Conclusion:

• Memory is very inaccurate

◦ It is always subject to reconstruction based on pre-existing schemas
• Bartlett’s study helped to explain through the understanding of schemas when
people remember stories, they typically omit (”leave out”) some details, and
introduce rationalisations and distortions, because they reconstruct the story
so as to make more sense in terms of their knowledge, the culture in which
they were brought up in and experiences in the form of schemas.
Evaluation:

• Limitations:
◦ Bartlett did not explicitly ask participants to be as accurate as possible in
their reproduction
◦ Experiment was not very controlled
▪ instructions were not standardised (specific)
▪ disregard for environmental setting of experiment
Connection of study to question
• Bartlett's study shows how schema theory is useful for understand how people
categorise information, interpret stories, and make inferences.
It also contributes to understanding of cognitive distortions in memory.