Transcript Schema Theory

Ms. Carmelitano
COGNITIVE ANALYSIS: SCHEMAS
BELL RINGER

Read the Story
COGNITIVE PROCESS: PERCEPTION
The way in which we interpret and organize
information from our sense to produce meaning
 Bottom-Up Processing



When we take information into our senses, and then
make sense of it by “building up” the different features
Top-Down Processing

When we process new information by filling in the
“gaps” with past information
COGNITIVE SCHEMAS
We have expectations as to what will happen
when we plan something because of our prestored mental representations
 Schemas are the way we encode, process, and
recall information

 They
decrease cognitive effort in the
encoding/processing phase

These are called cognitive schemas
 Schemas
are mental representations of the world
SCHEMA THEORY CLASS ACTIVITY
What is this?
 What is this?
 What is this?

THREE TYPES OF SCHEMAS
Role Schemas: Describe the appropriate norms
and behaviors for certain groups (IE: age, race,
sex, occupation)
 Self Schemas: Beliefs about ourselves,
understanding of our own behaviors
 Scripts: Beliefs/understanding about events –
what should happen/ what should be present
in certain situations

STORY

Write down as many details as you can
remember from the story
THE SCHEMA THEORY
Postulated by: Fredrick Bartlett
 A cognitive theory about information processing
 Schemas are networks of knowledge, beliefs,
and expectations about aspects of the world

 They
are the way in which we organize information
so that it can be accessed and used as we need it

We create schemas for everything – they are
categories in which we fit our experiences to
make sense of them
SCHEMAS AND PERCEPTION
The Schema Theory suggests that what we
already know will influence the outcome of
information processing (Scripts)
 This may cause distortions in perception

SCHEMAS
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Our schemas effect how we remember information, and
what we remember
Jean Piaget theorized that when we experience
something new, we use of schemas to understand it
through accommodation and assimilation
Assimilation: The process of taking new information to
our previously existing schemas – we modify our
experiences to fir into our pre-existing beliefs
Accommodation: The process of changing or altering our
existing schemas in light of new information – altering
existing schemas or ideas as a result o new experiences
EXAMPLE OF THE SCHEMA THEORY
Furry
Pet
CAT
Four
Legs
Tail
ONE HALF OF THE ROOM CLOSE YOUR EYES
BRANSFORD AND JOHNSON (1972)

Split participants into three groups
Group one: heard a paragraph about folding laundry –
but were given no information about what they were
hearing
 Group two: Told they were about to hear a paragraph
about folding laundry, and heard the paragraph
 Group three: were told the topic of the paragraph after
they heard it
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Groups were then asked to recall the information
from the paragraph
RESULTS
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Group 1 recalled the least amount from the paragraph
(Recalled 2.8/ 18 “essential ideas”)
Group 2 recalled most of the paragraph (recalled 5.8/
18 “essential ideas”)
Group 3 could not remember much from the paragraph
(recalled 2.6/ 18 “essential ideas”)
Why?


Telling the group the topic first activated schemas for
laundry, and allowed them to encode the information as
they were hearing it.
The group who were given the title later were told too late

This shows that in order to encode we need to recall our schemas
before the information is given
THE PARAGRAPH

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into
different groups. Of course, one pile may 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 too
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. (p. 722)
DISTORTIONS

If information is missing, the brain will fill in the
blanks based on existing schemas
 This
is why we have never seen a unicorn, but we
can takes pieces of other schemas, mix them
together, and get a picture
Activity: Create a creature with features that do
not exist in the real world
 IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

SCHEMA THEORY AND MEMORY
The schema theory is used to explain our
memory process
 The process of forming memories has been
divided into three categories

Encoding: transforming sensory information into a
meaningful memory
 Storage: creating a biological trace of the encoded
information in memory – it is consolidated or lost
 Retrieval: using the stored information

MODEL OF MEMORY
ENCODING
STORAGE
RETRIEVAL
Put into memory
Maintain in memory
Recover from memory
SCHEMAS
ANDERSON AND PICHERT (SCRIPTS)
Participants were told a story about two boys
who decided to play hookie
 They went to one of their empty houses to hang
out
 House was described as being isolated and in a
good neighborhood
 The house had a leaky roof and a damp
basement, mentioned expensive objects in the
house

ANDERSON AND PICHERT
Aim: To understand how schemas may DISTORT
memory
 Procedure:

Half the participants were asked to read the story from
the point of view of a home-buyer
 The other half was asked to read the story from the
point of view of a burglar
 Participants then preformed a distracting task for 12
 Researchers asked participants to re-write the story
 Then after a 5 minute break, participants re-read the
story, half being told to switch perspectives

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Findings
On the first trial participants who read from the
perspective of the home-buyer remembered more of
the details that a home-buyer would be interested in
 Those who read it from the perspective of the burglar
remembered information that a thief would be
interested in
 Those who switched perspectives remembered more
facts than those who did not on the second reading

BREWER AND TRAYENS (1981)
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Method
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30 participants were taken to a university student office and left
alone for 35 seconds
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The office contained different objects that did and did not conform to
typical office material
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IE: typewriter, desk, coffee pot, skull, piece of bark, pair of pliers
Students were then taken into another room
They were asked to write down everything they remembered
Results
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Most participants recalled the typical office items (typewriter,
desk, coffee pot)
Some participants reported things that were not there, but they
thought should be there (books, phone)
Many ALSO recalled the skill (not predicted by the schema theory)
CONCLUSION
This study supports the schema theory
 Students remembered things that should have
been in the office and incorrectly recalled items
that were not there, but fit their schema of an
office
 They also recalled the items that SHOULD NOT
be in the office, because they were so
completely against their schemas that they
stood out

EVALUATION OF SCHEMA THEORY

Schema theory has contributed to the
understanding of memory distortions and
social cognition
 Stereotyping

and prejudice
Limitations of the Theory
 Not
clear HOW schemas are acquired in the first
place and HOW they actually influence cognitive
processing
COHEN (1993)

He has criticized schema theory
The concept of schemas is too vague to be useful
 Schemas cannot be observed

 Even
the use of fMRI simply show brain activity, they do not
clarify what exactly the individual is processing at the time.
 fMRI - A Functional MRI is a brain imaging technique that
detects magnetic changes in the brain’s blood flow patterns.
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This technique is useful for detecting changes in activation of
different centers of the brain.
This technique can be used to identify behavioral abnormalities that
exist because of unusual activation of area of the brain.
Measures blood flow in the brain